Tale of Beyond: Roses Teardrops, Hearts Broken
by Ameera Mae Laramie
Summary: This is one of the tales of Beyond. A young Hylain Queen must leave her World behind and go into another in order for Time to create a new chapter in History and to allow Destiny to continue on.
1. Prologue

~*~ _The_ _Legend of Zelda _~*~

**Tale of Beyond**

_Roses Teardrops, Hearts Broken_

_Long ago, in the times of old and the ancients in the land of Hyrule, there is an age-old legend that has been passed down into the hearts and souls of those that have lived there for generations of past, present, and future children. A legend that had once been a reality, in a loop of infinite wisdom and mistakes that had not been repeated but generated in circles of misfortune. Those that claim to have witness the horrible events, have long since been buried into the soft soil beneath them and allowed the land to regenerate their spirits into flowers and stars that shine down upon the accursed land like diamond eyes in the darkness._

_It is the tale of Link, the Hero of Time and boy whose very soul was trapped in the light of the Scared Realm for many years. His heroics saved the land many a time from the Dark Gerudo King, Ganondorf, and others who dared to disrupt the peace of Hyrule and end lives that did not need to shed any blood upon fertile soil. His soul once rested in the darkness that had been the Evil World, the other side of the Light World and the mirror image of what the Triforce had once become. It is a tale that weaved itself in the history of the land, eventually becoming myths and bedtime stories until it settled down into mere legend. It was just a tale that was believed to be make-believe, even in the texts of history._

_Yet, among many other tales of heroes and villains, there is a legend that only a few of the Royal Family know of and are willing to tell it. One of four sacred pendants that allowed those that wanted to escape their World and live in another for short periods of their lives. These pendants went into other Worlds that are unknown to Hylians, Worlds that were set in the heavens above. One was sealed secretly in a vault, one held by the Zora, one in a grave of a Queen, and one lost to memory. The pendants were created centuries ago by a Sheikah mage who had harnessed the power of travel between Worlds and into the lands of the imagination._

_That story has many pages that make up the _Beyond _tale and many more. This is the first part of the tale of_ Beyond _that tells of the journey of a single pendent to the Human World, the _Child of Prophecy_, and the beginning of a new era of Hyrule._

_Beyond _series and all original characters © Ameera Mae Laramie

_Legend of Zelda_ games, characters, and places © Nintendo and their original creator


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter One:

Hyrule. A land created eons ago by the Three Goddesses that descended upon a broken land and tamed the wild that once was. Din, Farore, and Nayru; three entities that held Power, Courage, and Wisdom in all of their purity and grace. In a land that had been plagued by wars since the beginning of its time until the current king united the races of Hyrule under his command, did the Three Goddesses come down upon. They poured their powers into every crack and crevice that they could, until the land became what it is today and what it would turn into. A land that once held flaming wars and broken dreams that had carried over into the new era.

The current king brought peace to these warring people and helped rebuild Hyrule out of what was left of it. The pieces were picked up, homes placed back together, and villages abandoned for memories and heartache still lay in the remains of things long since forgotten. Things that should have been remembered, mistakes that would repeat themselves until there was nothing left of them but troubles and worries that could not be erased. The ashes of old had been removed and placed under the old flames, or so the Court of the Royal Family claimed. Not everything is as it seems.

A pact was formed between the four major races of Hyrule: Goron, Zora, Hylian, and Sheikah. The Goron are a rock-eating species, living inside Death Mountain that sits on the edge of the lonely mountain range along one side of the land. They keep guard over the ever-active mountain, looking down upon the land as though they were the unknown Gods that watched over Hyrule in all of its glory. The Zora are a fish-like species, thriving in the waters deep next to the Forest. They are the guardians of the rivers and streams, keeping the water pure for all to enjoy. The Sheikah, an ancient race that, long ago, served the Royal Family to the end of their lives and a secretive race with many a dark tale to tell. With so few Sheikah now living inside Hyrule, the pacts of old wore thin and some have broken off to where so few now obey their ancestor's ways and the ways that once bond them to the noble homes.

The other races inside Hyrule have not come to terms with those that dwelled inside the castle of Hyrule, two that were never given much thought to. The child-like Kokiri did not have such an alliance with the Royal Family; at least, one that concerned the king and ones that slipped passed the watchful eye of the guards. He knew that this race existed, yet held no reason to go into the Forest that was rumored to be forbidden to all but the Kokiri. They held no interest in the King himself, rather in the underlying forces that kept themselves hidden behind curtains of darkness and trees while also keeping many outsiders at bay. What the current ruler of Hyrule did not know would not hurt him – for the time being, perhaps.

The Gerudo, the second race that held no ties to the Royal Family, the band of thieves that hailed from the desert Valley on the other side of the land. It was several days journey from the castle by foot, a day by horseback. If one was lucky, creatures that lurked in the corners or any other creature that wanted the taste of blood would not ambush them. This was, however, another region where the king did not venture; instead ignoring it as he had no intention of ever seeing what was beyond the rock formation that told countless adventurers of the presence of something that did not need to know about. The Gerudo weren't a race that seemed interested in the Throne of the land, keeping to themselves and going about their thievery as they had for a long time since the beginning. That is, unless the bandits decided to storm the castle and take over the perfectly _fine_ job he was doing.

These same alliances did not seem to concern her at the present time either, as Queen Kaya sat on the pillow that lay upon the top of her throne, her hands gripping the plush armrests of the seat as tightly as they could be. Her young face hard-pressed and rock solid as her features allowed it to become, her blue eyes devoid of emotions and anything else that gave way anything the fear that she felt inside of her. There were a few beads of sweat that dripped down her face, the only thing that showed something was wrong and that there were any hints of panic inside of her. Her black hair, unusual for a Hylian and any attempts to dye it went unsuccessful, every strand in many braids, held on top of her head with a sapphire tiara hold them in place, with the ends of these same braids resting upon her shoulders. Her white dress, held at the waist with a purple belt with a Triforce buckle in the front, garnished her with royalty as she sat in near perfection on the throne.

She did not allow her panic to swell to the surface to the extent that would have her thrown out of the Throne Room, the possible reaction that would come from her loathed husband whirled in her mind with her troubled thoughts. There were so many things that went inside of her mind that she could not sort out what was supposed to happen and what had happened, her eyes dropping down onto the ground below for a moment before they rose back up again. There was no denying that what she saw in front of her was reality, yet she wished it was a dream that had not come true as of yet. So many dreams that crossed over into reality that she felt she was in a walking sleep, her mind closed off to anything that could show her otherwise.

Yet, the king beside her, the husband that she had been forced to marry in what seemed like decades ago, did not notice the posture that she held or the beads of sweat that came down her face as he watched a tall figure walk up the red carpet towards the thrones, his stride slow and graceful. His crimson eyes seemed to hold an evil tint in them, which seeped out into the pure floor in which he was walking on, a tint that was ignored by the guards and by the man that sat there with a forced smile on his lips and a nearly impossible look of forced interest on his face. His clothing was that of the Gerudo, the thieves that came from the desert and were looked down upon by the king himself, dark armor that had been created for him alone or had been taken off the body of a slain soldier.

There was a smirk on his lips, a smirk that said what mere words could not express in a lifetime. It gave the king the impression that the two of them shared a mindset, that no one was above them, not even the Three Goddesses or the Sages themselves; that gave him some pleasure to know that there was another that did not grovel at anyone's feet nor showed any mercy to those that did not deserve it. For Kaya, it gave her a dreading that she did not like, something that made her stomach freeze her and heart stop in her chest. And, yet, both knew that this man was after something, more than what he was letting on.

From the moment that he had stepped into the Throne Room, Kaya could see the tendrils of darkness flail behind him, a cloud of darkness hovering just barely in her line of sight. These wisps of darkness faded in and out of her line of sight, not strong enough for her to fully grasp the severity of dark magic this being possessed. She knew that there was only one male born to the Gerudo, trained heavily in magic and protected until that child reached manhood to take over where his ancestors once sat. But that wasn't what worried her, what _did_ was the lack of knowledge she had in the visions she saw that swirled around this man. _What had the elder Sheikah told me this meant?_ She thought to herself as she watched the Gerudo walk the last few steps to the twin thrones.

"Your Majesties, it is a pleasure and great honor to have an audience with you personally." He stopped only a foot away from the head of the Royal Family, dropping to one knee and bowing his upper body to the rulers of Hyrule. It was a sign of respect towards the two, an outward appearance that masked other intentions. And he hid them well. "I am Ganondorf of the Gerudo, who hail from the Gerudo Valley."

"Yes, Ganondorf. I have heard of your name in passing," the King replied, his forced smile not faltering the slightest. "Certain rumors have managed to surface throughout the castle that I have not been able to ignore."

"It is yet another honor to know that you have heard of my name, Your Highness," Ganondorf said, keeping his bowed position as best as he could. His own smirk faltered slightly, a wince of disgust going across his face for a split second. He was thankful, at least, that his face was not fully facing the king or he would have placed more doubt upon the damned Hylian's mind then there already was. "It is with more pleasure that you have answered my request to have an audience with you in your busy schedule."

"Likewise," He muttered, silently and quickly stealing a glance over towards Kaya before returning his eyes back upon the man that kneeled before him. "I am most curious to know what brings you so far from your home. Gerudo Valley is more than a few miles away from the Hylia and the other side of this land. It is so far away for anyone to travel alone."

"My home is far away, yes, but it is a journey that I was willing to take," Ganondorf said, his eyes narrowing into slits for a moment before they opened fully once again. _A journey that has been in my favor, even before I had set foot into your damnable castle,_ he added silently to himself.

The king nodded. "Understood, even if that time has been in vain. I do not see a reason why a Gerudo should be in my presence."

Some would have used those last words as an insult, but Ganondorf only let it fuel a burning desire within him as his raised his upper body to look directly into the eyes of the king. He ignored the woman sitting next to him, a reminder of what he had left back in his own home in the desert and what awaited him in the courtyard of the castle. His intentions that day were only to plant seeds in the minds of the castle and to come back to water them year after year before they eventually grew to a point that he was satisfied and ready to harvest those seeds. It was only the beginning of a long process, one that he did not want to take but had little choice; it was this or lose more of his Clan to the dungeons or worse.

"Your Honor," Ganondorf started, spreading his arms out and opening his palms towards the ceiling as he did. "I have only come here to forge an alliance with the Royal Family. I have many allies in other lands that have information that you may desire, information that is vital to your lands."

"Information?"' The king inquired, leaning forwards some. "What kind of information do you have?"

If that had not intrigued him, then Ganondorf would have resolved into other tactics. A smile came to his lips, seeing the interest in the man's eyes and taking note of the hallowed look of uncertainty on his face. Surely any information that was not known to him was information that he would pay for dearly. Many things that he did not know himself, would eventually be paid with by blood; even with the peace that was supposedly sprouting across Hyrule, there were some tools of the wars that were still being used to this very day. They were kept hidden beneath the corridors of the castle, along with prisoners that no one knew about and were kept well out of the public eye.

"Yes, information. It is on other lands that will ensure your victory in battle. Information that will have more power to this Family then you can imagine." There was a short pause before the words continued. "There are several bordering lands in which would not mind overthrowing you and taking over the throne. Treaties have been forged, yes, but signed parchment can only hold for so long and it is only paper. From what my scouts have told me in the last several months, there are armies that are waiting for the opportune moment to strike."

"There have been armies and rulers that have been at Hyrule's doorstep before, so it is not as uncommon as you think it is," the king said, his voice dripping with irritation. If this was all the Gerudo had come to give to him, then he was wasting more than just his time. The idealistic pact that he, the ruler of Hyrule, had forming in his mind with a man that seemed to hold such power, was beginning to fade and fade fast. "The boundaries of Hyrule have yet to be breached, as far as I am aware of. We are surrounded on all sides, by mountains, trees, and desert waste. The borders are our protection and our prison. They keep us safe while also holding us in."

"I understand that, but all prisons can be broken into, my clan has ways of doing just that. Your borders aren't as safe as you think they are." That was an implication that the king did not like to hear coming from Ganondorf, not when the words held true. Many a time there had been Gerudo prisoners in the cells of the dungeons below the castle and most, save for four, had escaped without so much as breaking a sweat. How those women managed to escape the security of the dungeons and lived to tell about it, was his only guess. "I know of several of your seemingly close allies are already rallying against Hyrule for war, in secret meetings and in the open courts of their harems."

"I am not interested in engaging in a war, Ganondorf. I have kept the peace in Hyrule since I have become king, and I intend on keeping it that way," he insisted, his tone becoming lower and his voice louder. Most would have slowly started to back up and do their king's bidding, but there was nothing on Ganondorf's face that showed he was the least bit afraid. On the contrary, he was starting to look just as agitated as the man in front of him was. "I will not fight anymore unless it is to protect this land. Unless you have solid proof of these allies rallying against my land, then I see no reason why I should become alarmed. No harem girl will prove otherwise."

"They are no mere harem girls, Your Majesty. My warriors can do the job well so no lives of yours will be lost in the areas of spying and the first lines of defense," Ganondorf said, holding back the snarl that was threatening to show itself. "I'll give you your proof, just as soon as I have your word in allegiance."

"Band of warriors, you say? Allegiance?" The king began to laugh as though the court jester was entertaining him. The laugh only made the blood of a Gerudo boil, his eyes narrowing and teeth baring slightly. Only Kaya seemed to take notice of the sudden change in Ganondorf's once controlled demeanor and shifted uneasily in her seat, the bands of darkness that were still behind Ganondorf were becoming stronger and not fading as much. If her husband did not control himself soon, she feared that there would be more than a few angry words exchanged.

"They have their own ways of fighting and have been able to prove themselves in more than a few battles," he said as calmly as he could, holding back the drive of blood back. It had been a week since he had smelled the sweet scent of someone close to death that the urge to hear the last breaths of life escape from the dying souls lips. "Do not underestimate the power of the Gerudo."

"The Gerudo are just mere thieves and nothing more," the king said after the last laugh had been done. "I will not allow such nonsense to reach my ears, about wars that are not even alive and bands of allies trying to overthrow me. I have no reason to believe what you say."

"Sire, I only wish to interest you in such information just in case a war is an option you must take." There would be a war, that much Ganondorf knew, but it wouldn't come from any bordering lands. No, it would come from inside the very walls of the land that they shared. He would make sure of it.

"When that time arises, I will take what I have into consideration and nothing more. I have more than enough resources to handle a full-fledged war without the help of the Gerudo." The king stood up from his throne and leaned forwards with a glint of anger in his eyes. "Leave the castle immediately or I will have the guards escort you out or put you into the dungeons. Your choice the way you want to live the rest of your life."

"Very well, so be it," the Gerudo said calmly, raising himself from the kneeling position he had been in. "I will keep coming back, year after year, until I forge a pact with the Royal Family. Just remember, we are not as different as you may think we are."

With those words being said, Ganondorf spun around quickly on his heels and paused for a moment to glare at the two guards that were beginning to come towards him. He put his hands up to stop them and started to walk towards the entrance of the throne room without much as a glance behind him to see the reactions of the king and queen of Hyrule. His true anger did not show on his face, more like the beginnings of what it meant to see a Gerudo even the slightest bit pushed to their limit. He would keep true to his words, both spoken and kept hidden from all that heard him - that much he would do. As long as he was able to cross the Field and walk into the castle grounds without having to shed his own blood, then he would keep coming back until he had what he truly wanted.

His anger could be masked for the guards that stood watching him walk out of the throne room, but that same anger could not be hidden from a pair of eyes that had watched the entire meeting without even setting foot inside the throne room. Ganondorf had glanced over towards a small, glass window that overlooked a private garden as he had walked by it, both sets of eyes piercing into each other before Ganondorf's darted back forwards with murder inside of them. There was no denying that his own intentions that day had been taken into consideration by the woman that did not need to hear what had been said between a king and a Gerudo, as long as she knew that there was something wrong. He knew someone was there, watching and waiting, and he didn't need to see her face fully from the dark shadows to know who it was that watched.

"Damn Sheikah," Ganondorf muttered to himself as he stepped out of the throne room and into the corridor. That much he knew from the few seconds that he had seen the woman standing behind the glass, watching the entire event fold in front of her as she kept herself half-hidden by shadows. The piercing gaze, the silver hair, the crimson eyes-all traits that were on every Sheikah he knew and every one that he had killed during raids. He couldn't let her get in the way of what he was planning, not even if he had to add her to the ever growing list of the Sheikah he had killed or seriously injured. If she knew anything, even by a single glance, then that was what he had to do.

XXXX

They had placed themselves all across the Market, many hiding behind veils and kept their swords sheathed in their scabbards. Some leaned against buildings, arms crossed over their chest and eyes staring blankly across the stalls and into the eyes of merchants that dared to look back. The meeting of gazes only lasted for a second, maybe two, before the merchants lowered their gazes and muttered things to all their customers within earshot. Some of the Hylians glanced in the direction of the Gerudo women that were watching them intently, shivers going down their spines as they held their purses closer to their body. They did not want to find any rupees missing; more than what they had already spent on goods and items that they needed to survive another week.

There were some that wore normal Hylian clothing, disguising themselves among the people that frequented the Market and held themselves high above the rest. Their hands were quicker than the perceptions of their victims, rupees being pocketed into purses of the Gerudo and a soft smile faltering on their lips. This was how their goods were purchased, through stolen money and by ways of a quick hand and glancing eyes. Merchants would not immediately notice that their items were long since gone until it was too late and the thief was gone before they could be caught. It was the way of the Gerudo to get by like this, simply and as quickly as they could. No blood would be shed during these simple, yet effective, raids that few could see with their own quick eyes.

Only two Gerudo women did not join in the watching of the Market, instead had placed themselves outside the castle gates and sat not even two feet away from the guard that stared as straight ahead as he possibly could. He was afraid, afraid of the two women that were watching him closely with one eye, the other trained perfectly upon the bend that lead up to the castle; they were making sure that the guard did not try anything towards them while also keeping lookout for their own leader. They had been trained since birth, to watch over their only male companion and to make sure that one of them fathered the next generation of male leaders.

The other would become the sister-mother of the child, a second set of eyes to watch upon the child until it reached adulthood before she would be cast off into the Haunted Wasteland to die or to become the adoptive mother of the child if the blood mother did not wish to continue her duties to the next leader after a set number of years. Both women knew magic - as it was in their blood to do so and had been bred for this type of duty - and had been taught by Ganondorf's blood mothers themselves; one of them would take the two old crone's places at one point in time when the two of them eventually died.

That was what awaited at least one of these two women, as they watched the guard squirm where he stood. He wanted to turn around and leave his post empty, so that he wouldn't have to look upon the women who were just as deadly as they were beautiful. The perfection upon these Gerudo were what made them valuable to Ganondorf, their flawlessness in battle and ease in the bedroom; as long as they could perform as both as a defense to him and as a way to release tension, then they would never have to risk their lives in raids or to lift a finger except when they acted as guards to him. Their duties were being used little on this day, even when he had left them to keep anyone else from entering the castle, even the milk caravans from Lon Lon Ranch. No one could enter the castle with Ganondorf present, not even the child Princess of Hyrule.

They sensed him coming even before he walked down the dirt slope and around the bend by way of their magical bonds, standing up with ease and brushed off any dirt that was upon their pants. They remained as they were until Ganondorf was in their sight, their bodies becoming rigid and hands placed upon the hilts of their swords as he came around with a flair of anger about him. The gate to the castle opened without the Hylian guard even turning around to see who was coming from the castle, the iron bars moving half-way open to accommodate the Gerudo King and closed after he had left the confines of the castle's grounds. He did not need to say a word to the two women that were watching him with curiosity, moving quickly by them without word as they turned on their heels and walked just as quickly behind him.

Ganondorf's steps were quicker than they had been when the small group of Gerudo had entered the Market and himself and his two guards went towards the castle; instead of looking around and seeing ways of placing his own guards in places that would benefit him, he kept his line of sight straight ahead. His steps were certainly longer and quicker, something in his walking that made him seem more imposing then they had been if he didn't give off the aura that something didn't go right inside the castle. The two women did not question what went wrong, as they surely would hear his ramblings in bed.

The path from the castle to the Market wasn't long, just enough to allow commoners to walk to the edge of their homes to look up at the castle for a moment before turning around and going back to their duties. Ganondorf and his guards weren't ones that were merely glancing at the castle, their strides fast and simple as they made their way through the crowded Market. Most of the Hylians had gotten out of their way, to keep themselves distanced from the Gerudo. One of the guards let out a shrill whistle, which marked the passing of their leader and for all Gerudo that weren't passing themselves off as Hylians to follow suit. The women pushed their way through the crowds, giving glares back to those that had given them the same glares, as they joined their comrades on leaving the castle-town behind.

The small handful of Gerudo that would be left behind would return in a weeks' time, scouring places that they would not normally be able to get into if they were not clothed and acting like a Hylian. Ganondorf had given them instructions to steal little and gather information the most, his eyes meeting theirs for a brief moment before he was ushered out of the Market and onto a waiting horse; the beast would return him back to Gerudo Valley and to look back on the brief meeting with the king. It wasn't a total loss, not when the seeds had already been planted and everything would soon be as they may.

XXXX

"I will _not_ do such a thing, Kaya," a shout echoed through the dining hall of the castle. Several maids jumped at the mere echo of the powerful voice, cringing at the tone and rolling their eyes at the flashing of heated anger that went through his royal eyes. They didn't have to see his face, or know what he was talking about, to know that he had been angered by someone or something and they had to leave before his wrath would be unleashed upon them.

It had about nearly three hours after Ganondorf had left the throne room and headed out to parts unknown in Hyrule; where he went and why he was going there, the king did not know nor did he plan on knowing. As long as the Gerudo was out of his sight and out of his thoughts, then there was no need to worry about him. Other business had taken the spot of where he had once kneeled down upon, business of executing prisoners and taxes on goods more important than information on wars that were not even close to Hyrule's boundaries. He had gotten the wars to stop, somehow, whether he had taken the glory for himself or had gotten his own hands dirty; either way, he wasn't about to engage his own soldiers in wars that did not concern him. That was what the peasants were for, to become the first line of defense and offense for the land. That was a hidden requirement for those that lay beneath the soldiers feet, something that no one was willing to tell those that could only dream of living inside the castle.

However, as soon as Queen Kaya and her husband had come into the long dining room, the encounter with Ganondorf soon slipped from her tongue and onto the table in front of her. She had sat down on one of the red chairs, looking up at the king with a tranquil look upon her face and hands folded neatly upon her lap. The king himself paced at the head of the table, not even looking at her nor letting himself find the same peace that she did. Whereas she had been taught to hold back emotions when it was required of her, he outwardly gave into those same emotions when he should've kept a cool head. They were opposites, brought together by a forced marriage that was bound together by royalty and tradition.

"He is dangerous. I say we must act and act now, before he does anything that you'll regret later," Kaya said calmly, keeping her blue eyes upon him. She was more than different from him in appearance, more than in knowing what one who is lavished with royalty should and shouldn't do. An orphan since she had been a mere babe, she had grown up on the outer edges of Hyrule and brought to Kakariko Village as a young girl. There, she learned the proper way to hold herself and to become a bride into the Royal Family. Once married, she had a daughter and continued to hold onto the throne as if she had been born into royalty herself.

"There is no danger in having him run free. There are no threats outside the occasional raid and dead body," he answered hotly, turning around on his toes and pausing at the chair he sat in every meal. Placing a hand upon the arched top, he stared across the room and out into the window that held the freedoms of the simple life beyond it. "I saw no harm in having one tiny visit with him."

"I sensed a danger in him. That much I know." Kaya leaned forwards, staring at him more intently. "He needs to be get rid of and now."

"How can he be dangerous?" He slammed his right hand onto the table and glared at his wife. "Tell me that much."

"He is a thief and he is Gerudo. You said it yourself many times that Gerudo can't be trusted." Kaya lowered her gaze and fumbled with a seam on her dress. "I felt something in him, something that I don't like. He is the one that has been haunting my dreams."

"Not this again, Kaya. Not that damnable dream nonsense. I think you stayed in that Sheikah hell for too long." He crossed his arms lightly across his chest and stared daggers of ice down upon her. "It is getting a tad bit old, don't you think?"

"No, not until you accept the fact that there are things in this land that exist even if you can't see them." Her eyes rose defiantly up into his, the same look that had been seen in Ganondorf's eyes. The only difference was, there was a fear inside of them that made her hold back anything else that she wanted to say. "Our World was founded on the same ideals that you reject, ones that have brought us our prosperity."

"I repeat: I do not believe in such nonsense." The king moved away from the table, his arms moving from his chest as he clasped them behind his back. Walking to the window that overlooked the back courtyard where the early evening patrol was inspecting every crack for those that were desperate enough to enter the grounds. "The so-called Triforce has been hidden in the Temple of Time since the beginning of this World. It was the creation of the Three Goddesses, Din, Farore, and Nayru, that had brought their powers to create this World. Or so says the ancient text."

"If you look inside the library," Kaya started without even turning around to face him, "that none of the history books have been written before that period."

"Our language wasn't adopted until the first readable texts were created," he continued on as though she had not said anything. "Stories have surfaced of the flaming Goddess, Din, the dancing water Goddess, Nayru, and the forest Goddess, Farore. They say that the early Hylians called the sun _Din's Fire_ as it bore strange resemblance to one of Din's eyes. If the Goddesses are legends, why shouldn't the Triforce be? I doubt it exists, if it ever did."

"It does exist. I know." Kaya turned around in her seat and stared at the back of her husband. There were shadows dancing around him, cold blue winds that circled him so that it looked like he was standing in the middle of a pool of water. She had seen these waves around him before, when she had first met him not even six years prior. From the old Sheikahs that had heard of the gift of Foresight, that meant he was going to die and die slow. They also said that while many Hylians had the ability to see things from the future, one would need the blood of Sheikah in their veins to see the dancing shadows and shafts of light like that and to understand what it meant.

Kaya had a thin line of old Sheikah blood in her, that much she knew from what she had been told of her family, but that was all she knew of the little else she did. Her parents had died when she was still a baby, she had been told their deaths had been caused by a Gerudo raid that had mistaken two poor farmers as informants to the Royal Family. She had lived the majority of her life in Kakariko, where she had been trained by Sheikah and Hylian alike – that was when the elder Sheikah had begun to probe her after she had announced her first viewing to them. How they could tell what lineage her blood contained she didn't know and didn't bother to ask; even as a young child she knew _not_ to question the magic the Sheikah possessed.

"Have you seen it with your own blind eyes?" The king asked without even turning around to face her. His voice was hot and irritated from having to deal with so many things at once and if he turned to face her again he might just slap her in the face with the pent-up anger swelling inside of him. Secretly, however, he was slightly scared of what she might do to him since she had been trained under Sheikah noses; she wouldn't dare for fear of what her husband would do to her.

"No, but..." she started before she was cut off abruptly by the sounds of light footsteps walking along the edges of the dining hall. Her ears twitched slightly, her head moving ever so slightly to the right, and her lips moving into a thin line. She knew that someone else was there, watching from the darkness that the torches did not shed their light upon. It was apparent that the king had not heard the quietness of this entrance, as he continued talking as though he had been the one to interrupt her.

"For once, Kaya, I wish you would not talk of this. It is just a dream, none other," he finished, finally turning around to face her and see what effect his words had upon her. Kaya looked back at him, holding her face as firm as she had when Ganondorf had been in her presence. If the defiance held, it meant that she either had not listened to what he had said or she would not hold back the telling of her dreams. Those same dreams that held a dark cloud coming from the direction of Gerudo Valley and lightening that crashed down without a storm brewing overhead.

He did not wait for her to say anything more to him, turning towards the entrance way of the dining room and walking in long strides towards the double doors. The guards standing on either side of the doors, took notice of his approach long before he had even started moving towards them, opening the door enough to let him through. With their heads bowed down towards the ground, they waited a moment before raising their heads and closing the doors tightly. They did not even take notice that their queen was still in the dining room, the only remaining maid inside cleaning the corners giving Kaya a look of pure disbelief and a comforting smile. At least with some of the servants inside the castle, there was knowledge among them that no person was above a king.

"He is stubborn, my Queen. More stubborn then Zelda, it seems," a cool voice said from behind her. Kaya stood, smoothing out her dress and turning towards the voice that spoke to her. A Sheikah woman stood where the king had once, her arms crossed tightly over her chest and her body towards the very entrance that had been opened only a few seconds before. Her eyes were upon the queen, crimson orbs that knew so much but held so little to be given in return. "He does not seem to care about the history of the land or the people in it. I still wonder how he ever became king."

"From what he has said, the actual Royal bloodline ended with his adoptive grandfather, but that is more than one of his shares of lies," she responded with a shake of her head. "I have long since stopped believing a word of what he has said since we were married."

"His credits do not go far, that much I can tell you. I have served this family since before you came to the castle, freshly wed to that bastard of a king." The Sheikah's voice did not waver from its high tone, even with the guards present inside the room. They knew of her thoughts of the king and had been expressed more than once to him and, still, she maintained the same mindset as before.

"Did you see the Gerudo?" Kaya whispered. "Tell me you saw the same darkness around him as I did."

"Yes, I did," the Sheikah said, nodding. "I was watching from the gardens where the king cannot see me and does not know I was watching. There is something about him that I do not like, both this Gerudo and the king."

"Then you sensed it as well?" There was a hopeful look in her eyes that was quickly masked by a inquired look as the last maid walked by them and towards the doorway that the servants used. "The darkness?"

"The evil is strong within him and a hidden power as well that will only get stronger with time." There was a tone in her voice that called for urgency, even if it did not come as quickly as it should. "I fear that he is not after alliance but after the throne and possibly more."

"It is true, then. The man from the desert." Kaya seemed to the point of becoming excited, her eyes darting around as though she had been told something truly wonderful. "I will station guards around the Temple of Time so that..."

"No, " the Sheikah said quickly, raising a hand to hold any plans of the queens to rest. "That would only make the townsfolk wonder what is going on and raise suspicion among the people and in the Royal Court. Not all guards are willing to do the queen's bidding. There are also Gerudo in the market, more than you think there is and well hidden. That would give them something to think about, the guards in more force around the Temple then there should be, and more than what they could ever tell their own king. They might think that there is something hidden in there, when they have no other reason to believe that there isn't."

"Is there?" She asked. "Is there something hidden in the Temple of Time?""

The silver-haired woman looked around, lowering her voice then she would if there was no one else around. "I won't say it here, not now. Not when there are ears that can speak."

"Oh," she said with a light of understanding, her eyes flickering towards the guards for a moment. "Impa, what if it is true?"

"What is?" The Sheikah asked wearily, her eyes shifting across the room without looking at the queen herself.

"My dreams," Kaya asked in a soft voice, placing herself back upon the chair she had sat upon only moments before. "The ones with the man that hails from the valley."

The Sheikah remained silent, her lips pressed into a thin line as she stared at the doorway across the dining hall. She was watching something that Kaya could not, something lurking just beyond her line of sight. It moved effortlessly across the hallways and down the stairs of the castle, into the dungeons and out of the range of the two voices that barely carried over the silent roar of the dining room. Small ears that weren't able to understand the strangled words between queen and Sheikah, ones that all knew too well. Those same words that were spoken carefully and were not ready to let the rest of the land know of what was yet to come.

"I do not know, Your Majesty. We shall see in time," was all that the Sheikah said, giving her one last look before shifting over and around the long table and towards the hallway that ran in front of the large room. Kaya did not follow the Sheikah with her eyes, instead stared down at the table in front of her. There was nothing of interest that was upon it, except that she kept her gaze away from the entrance as much as she could. The Sheikah was about to strike in her own way, strike with the passion that both knew had in her and the deadliness that was known to be in her blood. What she was going to do was not what was worrying her, but things that were well beyond her reach.

Well beyond what she could do alone.

_Beyond_ series and all original characters © Ameera Mae Laramie

_Legend of Zelda_ games, characters, and places © Nintendo and their original creator


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter Two:

A light rain moved over the land of Hyrule, the grey storm clouds shifting and churning above the land as they sprinkled the light droplets of water upon the ground. The ground itself was soft from the rains and all creatures remained inside their homes to keep themselves from being soaked by the light downpour. Even the horses at Lon Lon Ranch refused to go out into the rain unless there was enough food to sway them, instead remaining in their stalls as they looked out from behind cracks of the barns. They knew something was wrong somewhere, much faster than what the Hylians could even start to feel in the land that they walked upon.

There _was_ something wrong somewhere, that much could be said without the trees and the forests telling those that could sense the danger from within the boundaries of Hyrule. The mountains did not tremble from the same silent vibrations that was underneath them, nor did the waste move from the darkness that clouded from up above. The land remained as it was without giving the hint of danger to those that could not sense the approaching storm that would more then divide the land of Hyrule once again. There would be no wars that would shatter the peace that was held dear to those that did not like the change; rather, they maintained that nothing was wrong even though there were signs all around that something would happen, not in the days that would past but in the future years of their lives.

Instead, it was a force that was more mystical then what the Hylians could ever feel, a presence that moved along the grass plains of Hyrule and along the outer edges of the forest. The water stood still for one moment in time, listening to that force before taking the news of trouble times to the Zora that were keeping watch just outside their domain. The Kokiri had sensed it long before any other creature in the land, quietly going about their lives like nothing was wrong yet keeping a wary eye trained to the entrance of their home. The Goron wouldn't hear of any whispering winds for several days, when the whispers danced up the mountains to their ears and cavern deep within the volcano that sat perched high above the towering trees.

The Gerudo knew something was wrong, perhaps less than the other races combined, and still did not heed the warnings that the cool wind brought. They ignored the shifting of the sand beneath their feet, content on knowing that they would be safe from whatever dangers that would lay in the close future. By their reasoning, they were safe from whatever forces, real or magic, that would befall the land that their home bordered and had more than enough protection to last them for many years. They were blind to what was going on in their own walls, the force that the wind told of right in their own grasp. They were too loyal to that particular force to know anything was out of place. All in due time, they would discover that their own pride would be a downfall.

Just outside the entrance to the Kokiri Forest, sat a small clump of trees that gave off the aura of secrets and surprises that sat beyond the grove of trees. Upon a particular tree, holding onto the branch with a mighty talon, sat an owl, head raised above the tree tops and eyes looking out into the Field. There was nothing in the rolling meadow of any interest to an owl that most likely was looking for his next meal or possibly the rare foe that could come along and snatch him up. He was, after all, old even by owl standards and had the appearance of seeing his last days within the next week. An easy target, if one did not look beyond appearances.

To the unobservant Hylian, this creature would appear to be just a normal owl out and about, looking for a meal or possibly a resting place for the day. And, yet, it would be odd to see an owl out of his nest if the sun shone normally, as owls are more common during the night hours then during the day and, by all accounts, the owl was out during the day. At least, that was the weather above the storm clouds; underneath them, the pattering of rain was still as strong as before. This particular owl didn't seem to notice the rain ruffling his feathers, or the lack of sun, as he stared across the Field and to the farthest borders that could not be seen by any normal Hylian.

Looking closer, it would seem as though the owl was looking towards the farthest border from the Forest, but in reality he was looking towards the Castle itself, staring at something in one of the towers. His eyesight was good for his age, all things considering he was most likely two hundred times older then the oldest known owl in the animal kingdom. He wasn't really an owl per-se, just masquerading as one until the time of his true form would be needed and he could return to his own plane of existence without the need for magical transformations. Oh he _could_ come out in his true form if he wished to, by all accounts the Goddess's granted _that_ much of him all things considering. But with the crackling energies felt between realities, he did not dare chance it at the moment.

That was the least of his worries, as he sat there just staring at the Castle/Town of Hyrule, at something that only he could see. What it was, or if it was a person, no creature seem to take notice, as they were all burrowed down in their homes to really care about a useless, old owl. That was the way he wanted it to be, so that he could take a good look around the Field at what his multi-vision eyes could find without having to worry about other owls bothering him. The rain also comforted him and allowed him to keep a firm grasp on his transformed state, so that there would be no questions asked from those that knew him from another plain of existence.

There was something that his line of sight saw, images of what would happen to the people inside of the Market if they did not take heed to what had been foretold so many years ago. He regretted that he could not do much more for this land then what he would do in the future, a soft, low hoot escaping his beak. If one had heard that, they would have noticed how sad it sounded, like he was mourning the loss of a great animal on the plains of Hyrule. In a sense he _was_ mourning, not for those that had died but for the ones that _would_ die. There was nothing he could do to change the future unless the future could change itself.

XXXX

"That bastard. How _dare_ he do this to me!" Ganondorf raged, a closed fist slamming onto the long table. There were no eyes that looked in his direction as several Gerudo entered though the only entrance to the tower room, none that had not seen his rage before and knew what to expect from him in a more then irritated mood. It was not that they did not care, it was that they were more then used to him venting anger in more than one way.

He sat at the head of a long table in one of the two private dining towers of the Gerudo Fortress, one that was reserved for him and the Gerudo he considered to be the most trusted out of the entire clan. His back pressed firmly against the high back of the chair, his body positioned at a slight angle and eyes glowering down at the table in front of him. Food was piled high on the table as several of the small group of trusted Gerudo sat down in their backless chairs with their companions and eyed the food in front of them. They bowed their heads slightly to their leader then in silent prayer to the Goddesses; their leader hardly even gave them a glance or a nod back. There was no need for any type of formalities in this circle, not when he did not need to be bothered.

The Gerudo were primarily a female band of thieves, allowing no man to join their ranks other than the one that sat at the head of the table with them. That was the way it had always been, with one male being born every hundred years to lead them into a new age and they preferred it this way. There had only been a few times, to any Gerudo knowledge, that there had been no male heir to the Clan and those times had been few and far between. Men were outsiders and considered toys in their eyes; still, Ganondorf was their leader and the only one in which they did not speak their ill words to. At least none that the most loyal to him could report to him about, those whispers were kept silent as possible so that the ones who whispered could see another day.

"I am guessing the meeting did not go as well, my son," Callon said as she sat down a few seats away from him and draped a thin shawl over her boney shoulders. Ganondorf did not look towards his aging adoptive mother directly, instead chose to look at the wall behind her and glare at that with all of his might. His hand clenched even tighter as he brought it to the arm rest of his chair and scowled.

It had been only a very short day in which he had come back from Hyrule Castle, having stormed into the Valley then to the Fortress without much word to any of the clan. Some had watched him go in interest, wondering what had gotten him so worked up over going to a short mission to the king. They knew very little of the details of what he was actually planning and shrugged the encounter off, going about their business as they normally went and kept it out of their minds. After all, who hadn't seen Ganondorf stomp around the fortress? If they had asked, they would be imprisoned somewhere in the fortress or killed off, whichever was more humane to them. It was better to keep their questions to themselves.

He had closed himself off to the majority of the clan, working his plan of action in his mind over and over again. New ideas had formed, old ones scrapped, and many mutterings had taken place in the time frame of a day when he had finally come out of his hiding spot and attempted to look a bit more pleased then he had earlier. It was not easy to let go of events that could very well endanger what he was working towards and one man was the key to both his success and to his failure. If he couldn't somehow _make_ his plan work, he would have to find other ways to get what he wanted.

"No it didn't, if you must know," he mumbled, raising his arm up and stretching his palm out so he could rest his chin on it. He still had that angry look about him yet still managed to look like an innocent child in the eyes of his adoptive mother. "I do not plan on stopping at just one meeting. I have to find the missing pieces so that I can get what I want."

"Ah, still going on the belief of the Triforce I see." Callon moved a hand towards the golden goblet that was sitting next to her plate as a serving girl filled it and bowed away. "I doubt it exists."

"It exists somewhere in Hyrule Castle, I am sure. Where, I don't know." Ganondorf frowned at the thought then shook his head. "I don't care how many trips I have to make to the damned castle, I will find them and have my wish."

"You have not been successful yet," she said, putting the goblet to her lips and taking a sip. "Why take the time to look for something that isn't there?"

"I will be, mother," Ganondorf growled low, his gaze finally resting upon her. If it had been any other Gerudo in the clan, they would have backed up at that moment and muttered their apologizes before scurrying off. However, Callon merely gave the same look back as she set her goblet back down onto the table; she had no fear of this man, she had been trained by his birth mothers not to be. "Yes it will take time that I don't want to waste but it will be to my advantage once I get the information from those that are stationed at the Market. The King is not helping me at all with it even though I suspected he wouldn't at first."

"You may be looking in the wrong places for it," a light voice said from the other end of the table. Ganondorf moved his gaze from his mother to the voice as a young woman moved her body towards the head of the table. He lifted his chin off the open palm of his hand, his eyes going wide slightly as she stopped at an empty chair next to Callon. She sat down next to her, her eyes not moving from the leader the entire time.

"Excuse me?" He stammered out, for once at a loss of words. He had not seen her before in the clan and had not given her permission to enter the tower room; most of the table had looked in his direction, assuming that he was surprised she had gotten past the guards in the tower to get to this room. In reality, he was captured by the unhindered beauty that she held. Her reddish brown hair was in many braids as it hung slightly past her neck with different beads at the ends of many of the braids. Her brown eyes looked into his, igniting a small blaze between them. She wore the traditional Gerudo clothing that the females wore yet it was slightly smaller than the others.

Callon took note of her adoptive son's expression for the girl and she smiled at that. She had given the girl permission to enter the room for this dinner, since all new raised thieves had to pass Ganondorf's expectations. She was no older then the age of fifteen, still a virgin and a skilled thief at her young age. Callon had seen what the girl could do and would expect that she would do well in the clan not only for her abilities but with the way that she could obtain information the way others could not.

"I see you have made it here, young one," Callon said, glancing over at the girl before looking back at Ganondorf, who was still staring at the girl. "Ganondorf, this is Nabooru. She is the newest to join the mid ranks of the clan."

"Nabooru," Ganondorf whispered to himself before shaking his head out of the trance. There were more important things to do other than to stare and gawk at a young female, especially one like her. "What part of the conversation did you hear?"

"Unfortunately, all of it and perhaps more." Nabooru then leaned slightly towards him, her face playful and a small smile toying on her lips. "You are looking for the _other_ pieces to the Triforce, are you not?"

Ganondorf's back stiffened and his body tense. The only persons in the clan that knew he was looking for the two other pieces were the ones in the room but the others, they knew enough of his plans to keep quiet about what they knew. How could a new, just appointed thief have known about a plan that he did not make public to the rest of the clan? He stole a scathing look to Callon, who had already begun to fill her plate with food and had not caught the look. Even she did not know all the details in which he planned nor all the visions and trials he had endured to get to this point. _I'll deal with her at a later time._

"If you want to know more details, then yes I am. That is all you will need to know." He wouldn't go father then that and his tone suggested that he was done with their short conversation. Nabooru, on the other hand, had a different plan.

"Then why? Why go looking for something that most likely doesn't exist?" She went on, ignoring the snarl that Ganondorf showed. "It is, after all, a legendary item that no one has seen since the Three Goddess created Hyrule."

"That is none of your business, Nabooru. Why I am looking for it is none of your concern," Ganondorf growled deeply at her. At that tone of voice, even Callon looked like she would have rather been somewhere else then in the room with him. There was a faint red glow around him that emitted a soft heat from his body, one that didn't seem to deter the young thief from going further. Instead she sniffed and looked offended that she was being told that it was not her place to ask a question or two.

"Then I plan to make it." Nabooru had the holier than thou tone that the king of Hyrule had with Ganondorf, one that made him cringe on the inside yet he secretly applauded her for her brashness. "I have an idea as to why you want to find it in the first place, an idea that the rest of the clan doesn't know about save for the ones that are in this room."

"Do tell. It might be a little interesting as to why you think he wants to find the Triforce even if it is rumored not to exist," Callon said, taking a small bite of the leg of bear meat that sat on her plate. Ganondorf now had his attention fully on her, a knowing expression clearly painted on his face. He knew she knew, but he wanted to hear the words for himself.

"Everyone wants a piece of power, even those that refrain from such a thing. Even if it's a small fraction of time to hold it, the lust for power is almost always yielded to. You, my good leader, already have a good reign of power here in the desert over the Gerudo. Hell, even the forest Kokiri know who you are through the senses of the forest and fear you. But," Nabooru paused for a moment then continued, "you want what you can't have – power, freedom, and gold.

"Gold can be obtained anywhere and by thievery alone, but that runs the risk of being caught and must be divided by the raiding party. Power is obvious, since just about every person in this land wants it and lots of it. Very few do not bother with it, since their hold on this reality is, at best, fleeting. Freedom, well...freedom is what we all want from the positions we hold and to experience what it is like on the outside."

If anyone had listened to what Nabooru had to say, they would have been shocked at it. To Ganondorf, it was like she had read his mind and knew exactly which thoughts he had in his mind. No one had known about the part of freedom – always being branded as a thief, an outsider to the rest of the land, a leader to an all-female clan. That was the only thing he had kept from everyone, even his own mothers who had given him life. Even so, he had to refrain from showing his own surprise and instead kept his face as expressionless as he could towards those present.

"You're good, Nabooru. Very good," he said after a few moments of silence, smiling at her with narrowed eyes. _I am going to have to watch this girl for a while. She knows too many things already and it is impossible for someone this young to join the highest ranking Gerudo in meals._

"I know I am, but there is something else that you should know. Something more than just the Triforce inside the castle-town." Her face went just as expressionless as his was. "Something that might be even more powerful than the Triforce combined."

"More?" Callon asked surprised, nearly choking on the food that she was eating before she picked up her goblet. She stole a quick glance towards the young girl sitting next to her, taking a drink out of it. Nabooru knew then that she had Callon's interest, but Ganondorf didn't seem convinced just yet.

"What else can there be?" Ganondorf questioned her, keeping his eyes narrowed and ears tuned. He could spot a lie a mile away and if this girl was lying, her thieving career was over before it had even begun.

"I heard that there is something that is sealed away in the palace. Where, I do not know. What it does, I have not been able to figure out just yet. But," she head up a finger, "I have also heard of an ancient Sheikan legend about four pendants that have mystical powers. They say they had been created five centuries ago by a long since dead Sheikah Mage. What these powers are was not revealed in the story; at least not in the version I was given."

"And where exactly do you _think_ these pendants are?" He had some new found interest in this tale, considering that most Sheikah legends were as true as fact. The Sheikah had many legends in many different forms and there were different names for everyday items and people. However this tale was new to him and, as someone who had heard his share of legends from the shadow folk, did not doubt there were even more that were not told to the rest of the World.

"Somewhere in the castle, maybe underneath it," Nabooru said, her voice ringing slightly of irritation. She didn't like to repeat herself, even to the Gerudo leader. "I did not bother to ask nor did I have the chance to."

"Why haven't we heard of this legend?" Callon wondered long after she had collected herself from the shock of hearing that there was something else that was just as valuable as the Triforce, if not more. "Everyone in this land has heard of the Sheikan legends of the past. Even the Kokiri, who live in the secluded Forest, has heard of them."

Nabooru smiled at the mix of curiosity and disbelief that the two most powerful persons in the clan were emitting. By now, doubt was on their minds and in their voices, something that she had expected of them and would understand. After all, not many Gerudo would willingly walk up to their leader and weave a tale of a Sheikah legend to him, one that he may not have heard before. It showed lack of judgment on their part and would often times lead to the path of death. However, she had chosen the right time to come to him with such a claim, one that was more than a bit correct.

"Remember this: Sheikah have ways of keeping secrets from the rest of the land." She spread her hands out to imitate the scope of the land. "Yet, sometimes secrets have a way of getting out. I have ways of getting said secrets out, even from the female Sheikah."

"I don't care how you came about this information, and I won't bother to ask," Ganondorf barked, clearly attempting to hide his curiosity. Somehow, this girl managed to get some old, unheard legend out of the damnable Sheikah and that wasn't a feat easily done. There were several of his Gerudo, however, that could do such a thing and this girl most likely would join them in number. Once her full abilities were shown. "Who else knows about this about this secret inside the castle?"

"If it was a Sheikan tale, the only persons would be any surviving Sheikah. Of course, I could have heard wrong about this and it is something different than that. The only way to find out is to look for yourself or ask a damned Sheikah, if you can find one." Nabooru stood up, her face twisting in irritation. "If you would excuse me, I have some things to tend to before the night is out. It was pleasure meeting you, Ganondorf."

She turned towards the doorway and made her way towards it, leaving Ganondorf with his mouth slightly open and Callon's eyes following her. Both had expected her to stay to watch their reactions to these claims and to answer any last questions before she had left. Callon had brought the girl to this meal to get to know Ganondorf better and to hopefully be the next one in line to carry his child, not one of the Gerudo that had been appointed as his guard. Instead, she had ignored the slight looks he had given her and instead rambled on about a Sheikan tale that most likely did not ring true. She looked over at him and took note that it didn't seem like Nabooru's departure had sunk in just yet.

"Sheikah?" Ganondorf asked to no one in particular, somehow lost in a thought of pendants, the Triforce, and Nabooru. It was a moment or two before his face came to a sudden thought and made his eyes narrow even more as he slammed a fist back onto the table once more. This time, it made any loose plates jump slightly and several drinks spill over, the other Gerudo's conversations stop in mid-sentence. They watched in wonder as their leader stood up, an expression of anger flowing onto his face. "I know which Sheikah holds the answer to this riddle, and I plan on paying her a little visit and soon."

XXXX

Nabooru moved quickly and quietly away from the tower where Ganondorf and his party of elite Gerudo ate, hardly even looking back at the looming form. It was early in the evening, when the sun had started to dip down into the distant horizon and the night soon would envelope the desert. It worked to her advantage, despite having the blessings of the Gerudo's mother, Callon, and the few elite Gerudo that knew she was coming to dine with them. The most distinguished of the clan would still berate her and possibly beat her into confessing how she managed to get into favor of the oldest Gerudo alive. It wasn't easy and her tongue had done most of the work, spilling secrets of vast caverns of gold and silver, caravans that still managed to get past the boundaries of Hyrule, and places in the Market where food was easy to come by.

Naturally, that information hadn't come to her first; thieves would be thieves, even to their own kin. The Gerudo were a family of some sorts, broken and misguided some would say but a family none the less. There was backstabbing to get where she had been moments ago, but it was worth it. Anything to get into the good graces of Ganondorf, or so it would seem. That was the intention, to show that she was willing to work with the leader but still maintain her lone wolf status she had worked hard to maintain.

That was her way, Nabooru mused as she moved from the confines of Ganondorf's personal home within the fortress itself and climbed down the narrow ledges of the tower. There were several of the guards that eyed her but did not move to seize her for trespassing - they had seen her come in the company of Callon and that was enough for them to think that she was good enough to pass by without being questioned as to why she was there and her business with the grand mother, as Callon had come to be called. Her business was her own and that was out of the way. She would move onto things fledgling thieves would were supposed to be doing but done alone.

As she hopped down from the last ledge, she turned around and started to make her way towards the main fortress compound, her thoughts swirling with her first encounter with Ganondorf. She hadn't been there long, just enough to get a decent shot at what he was made of, to see what he would believe, and to get a glimpse of what she was up against. She knew she didn't like him, even with the twenty minutes she had been in that dining hall. _He's too arrogant_, was her first thought when she had left the tower, _even for a Gerudo._ Being too arrogant would cost a Gerudo her life, even if she knew what she was doing and knew how to do it well. That had been her first lesson and learned that hard; that was why she turned to the status she would later fully adapt to - she would do things her way without anyone to deflate her ego.

Nabooru straightened her back as a group of six of the middle class Gerudo came towards her, all of whom were deep in conversation. They stopped when the two parties passed, all six eyes staring into the eyes of a young thief. There were no words exchanged, no outward hostilities, no way of knowing what they thought of her other than the scowls they placed upon their faces. She just gave them a pleased look, an expression of pure delight that she had gotten a rare audience with Ganondorf at meal time before they did. There were only mutters of the Gerudo language between the six of them as they continued on, leaving the youngling to enjoy that rare moment when one younger and less experienced got the best of them. It wouldn't last long, though.

She sighed, running a hand through her braids as her thoughts quickly moved back onto Ganondorf. Nabooru hoped that her story had given him something to think about, even if he didn't believe her. Not many would, considering no Gerudo had managed to slither her way into a Sheikah encampment and learn things no others could do. Oh, the Sheikah knew who she was before she even spoke a word, her tanned skin, reddish hair, and clothing giving her away before she had done anything. They also knew she wasn't there to steal from them, not when what she had wanted was more important than rupees, gold, and silver combined. Their information had been valuable to her, despite the riddles and guesswork she would have to do to convenience even herself of things that didn't seem to exist.

The story of Sheikah-made pendants had been farfetched to say the least, but compared to the story of the Triforce and other Hylian legends, she had to take it on herself to at least semi-believe what the old Sheikah crones were rambling on about. They were old, quite possibly at least a hundred and ten years in age - old but still young in their eyes. They had been the oldest living Sheikah she had met and they looked no older then a fifty year old Hylian. Had she been an outsider to Hyrule, she wouldn't have believed them. Not that Sheikah didn't live outside the land, but they were few and far between. Or so what she had been told.

The story of the pendants had come up when another of her party - a name of a girl that she couldn't remember - had asked if there was anything more powerful than that of the pieces of the Triforce. The old Sheikah had gone quiet for a few moments, each looking at another and muttering something in the Sheikah language, before turning back to the young thieves. It was then that the story of the pendants was told, how a Sheikah mage had created something that was powerful but not as powerful as the Triforce itself. Still, the pendants were instruments in saving lives and helped keep another Sheikah legend alive and well. When asked what the pendants were used for and the other Sheikah legend, the woman had turned cold and politely asked the Gerudo to leave.

Nabooru laughed quietly to herself, having seen the looks of pure loathing on her fellow thieves faces when they were told to leave. None had wanted to leave but weren't about to go up against a single one of the aged women; they knew what just _one_ of them could do even being over a hundred in Hylian years. So, they left with the little information they had gotten; all but one had forgotten about what had been learned with the Sheikah and went about thieving for their prized loot to make up for what they did not find in information. The last one remembered it well and told the only person that might be able to do something about it.

And she would soon come to regret that decision in the years to come.

_Beyond_ Book series and all original characters © Ameera Mae Laramie

_Legend of Zelda_ games, characters, and places © Nintendo and their original creator


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter Three:

The castle of the Royal Family of Hyrule had been built many centuries, maybe longer, before the current ruler of the land had taken throne. This had been done not only as the home of the Queen and King but also as a fortress of protection for times of war and famine. It was held together by stone, brick, and sand, a place where the entire Market could easily fit into with room to spare, if the direst of circumstances should ever arise.

That had been one of the original intentions, for it to properly safeguard the entire population in case the wars started up again. But that intention would never see the light of day in this generation, until a new ruler emerged on the throne. That would not come to pass for at least another two decades if not longer, if the current king of Hyrule had any say in the matter.

In all of its intentions, the castle more than exceeded its current position as home to the Royal Family. The grounds in front of the castle stretched from the very edge of the Market to the Castle itself, a good three quarters of a mile of nothing but dirt, grass, rocks, and a stream running along the front of the castle. The path itself snaked from the drawbridge, around the front garden, through the iron gate that allowed entryway in and out of the grounds, and to the edge of the Market. The water from the stream ran from Zora's Domain and back again, one of the few safety features that came with the castle and one that the king did not have to bother with. What lay behind the castle in terms of land mass, no one knew and never really cared to ask.

Inside the castle were corridors and rooms filled with tapestries and items fit for a Royal Family and beyond. There were rooms, walls, and staircases that seemed to have been created around lavish indoor gardens and secret passages were plentiful in this structure. The marble and stone hallways illuminated when the sun shone in through the windows and hit the floors, dancing upon the ground with shadows. The indoor gardens had been created to give a sense of the outside world, a place where the younger members of the Royal Family were not supposed to venture out too much without an escort or two.

The grounds were closely guarded by trained soldiers, patrolling the gardens and outside grounds more so than the corridors and rooms. There was more than one way to enter the castle through the gardens and more than a fair share of conversations went on in these same gardens, many of which the king wanted to hear personally without actually being there. The guards had always been the eyes and ears of the king as he learned things he couldn't get by his own presence. Even so, there were ways around the guards and not all were loyal to the king himself.

Inside the main garden, just outside the window that overlooked the throne room, a small child sat on a small marble plateau that jutted out into the small garden. Stone walls stood all around her, preventing her from seeing the outside world she so longed to see and touch. Two guards stood at the entrance to the garden, their backs on the girl as they needed not to see her but rather keep their well-trained ears on any words that might be said. They stood still, each holding a spear in their hands, a reminder that they were the ones in charge and not anyone inside that garden with them.

The girl seemed to be no older then the age of five, short blonde hair tucked underneath a shawl that was pinned upon her head. She wore the dress of a daughter of a king, her arms wrapped tightly around a rag-like doll and her eyes closed tightly. She was scared of something, of nothing it would seem in the eyes of the guards, as she rocked back and forth. To the outside eye, there seemed to be something wrong with her, something that they couldn't describe without knowing first what the girl could see.

She had inherited the gift of telling the future, of things that could come and go as they pleased and with the winds that changed. She would eventually learn how to control this and it would not scare as much as it did now, in the years to come. This was in her blood, the blood that was carried through every female line of both sides of her family and would continue to move through the generations until the end of the bloodline. Should it ever arise.

"Zelda?" A voice called from the doorway. The girl opened her eyes, turning her head towards the arch that allowed only the servants and Royal Family to pass through. A long figure stood there, a Sheikah that looked ageless as though she had not once aged a year. A small smile was on her lips, her head tilted to the side and eyes calm and cool. Her face betrayed her true emotions, the calmness before the storm one would say. She could hide the distress in which she saw the state of her charge, one she did not like.

"Impa," Zelda muttered, continuing to rock back and forth as she took her gaze away from the Sheikah and brought it down onto the ground. She heard soft footsteps come towards her, the sounds of something rustling against the grass; had she not been around any Sheikah since her birth, she would not have heard her footsteps but rather though the rustling of the grass to be just the wind. That was how quiet they were, cunning, and powerful all in one go.

"Why are you here alone?" Impa asked, sitting down on the marble steps. The child did not look at her when she sat down next to her, her eyes intently moving along the walls of the garden and then down to the ground below. That was a sure sign that there was words that she wanted to say but did not in fear of what would be overheard. _Zelda is learning on what to not to say when others are around,_ She thought to herself. "You should stay with me, young one. It is not safe, even in the castle walls."

That was the truth, in a sense as the Sheikah glanced towards the archway of the garden then brought her eyes back towards the princess. The guards were, in all ways possible, standing there with their hands grasped tightly on their spears and had just gotten into a defensive stance. Impa knew that to be one of two things: either the king was in the guard's line of sight or they were ready to kill someone inside the castle. She had not once seen them get ready for battle in that way since she had been in service to the Royal Family and that had been a number of years now. There had been intruders before and the guards had not once acted like they were about to defend anyone other than the king himself.

"I saw those pictures again," Zelda whispered in a small voice. "They won't go away."

Impa didn't have to ask Zelda what she meant, having seeing these _pictures_ in her deep dreams. They were visions of some sort, visions that every princess and queen had since an early age for the last several generations of female rulers. She could tell when Zelda had one of her visions, because she would always come to this very garden and mumble things to herself until she was found. She glanced towards the guards again, just to make sure that their heads weren't turned towards the pair; that was a sure sign that they were listening in on what was going to be and what had been said already.

"Your dreams?" She asked soothingly as she turned her attention back towards the little girl. Zelda nodded her head twice and shook her head three times, wrapping her arms around her legs even tighter. That was the code for _no_, to deter any person not familiar with it to think that the girl couldn't make her mind up. The code for _yes_ was shaking her head twice and nodding three times. "Are they similar to your dreams, then?"

"No, they are different pictures. One shows a girl, I think at least." Zelda looked up at her attendant, mists of yet fallen tears glistening at the base of her eyes. "She is not Hylian, or at least I don't think she is. She has pointed ears like we do, but they aren't as pointed and she has the same color hair as momma. But her eyes are more red, like yours, if I look at them long enough."

"Are you sure?" Impa asked in a low voice, the strain in it apparent even to a five-year-old. The guards wouldn't hear a soft voice such as a Sheikah's and wouldn't really notice the conversation between them, or at least pretend that they didn't. If they heard anything, anything at all, it would be sure as anything that it would land upon the ears of the king.

"I'm sure," the princess said with a hint of impatience in her voice. "She resembles a Hylian but isn't. She can speak our language but I can understand her when she speaks her own."

"I see." Impa placed a protective arm around the small child's back, bringing her close to her. She dropped the doll she had, placing her arms around her protector's neck. _She's scared of what she sees, if not of what her father would do if he finds out even more of what this child sees,_ she thought, feeling Zelda's tiny body tremble with tears. _It isn't her fault that she has to live with these visions. Some princesses of this Royal Family have never been raised to queen because they couldn't take the visions any more. Death, to them, was the only way out._

"They are scary. Make them go away!" She cried. The Sheikah blinked back the surprise in which Zelda had said those words; she had not shouted them but they rang with ferociousness behind each syllable. _If only I could, child. If only I could._

"Make _what_ go away?" A snarl came from the arched doorway as the two froze in their places. Impa moved her eyes towards the entrance of the garden, her body stiffening slightly to the effect that she was genuinely scared of the person who stood there when she held no fear for that same person. She dropped her arm to her lap, her face becoming the same stillness that had been on it earlier; if there was any emotion on her face, it would betray her and Zelda alike. Zelda looked up at the Sheikah, a confused look upon her face as to why she had become so stiff even though she knew who was standing there.

She let her gaze follow the attendant's towards the door, where her half mock, half real confusion lingered for a moment before disappearing completely. There, standing as though he had been there from the start, was the King of Hyrule. He hardly looked pleased to see two of many thorns in his side sitting upon the platform with placed emotionless expressions on their faces and acting like they knew not a word had been spoken of something horrible. His face said it all when he coldly looked from one to the other with mild heat emitting from that same expression. If he could have heard what had been said between the two, he would have found that there was more then a mild anger forming.

"I ask again, daughter. Make _what_ go away?" He barked when he didn't receive a response from his young daughter. His hands moved and clasped behind his back, in an attempt to keep them from taking a spear from one of the guards and driving it into that same guard's stomach or into the head of the same child that sat there. He didn't like to repeat the same question over again.

"Um, the guards?" Zelda squeaked out, moving swiftly behind Impa to keep herself from being smacked across the face. She buried her face in her clothing, hoping her father would not ask any more questions that she had to directly answer. Impa felt the same way, muttering something in the Sheikah language under her breath, loud enough to make the king raise an eyebrow and tilt his head to the side.

"What was that, you Sheikan devil?" He bellowed, causing both guards to jump from their positions. Instead of leaving the words alone, he walked toward the two, taking long strides as he did. It was apparent that enraged him enough to come this far up to them, hardly worth the effort since what Impa had muttered was nothing more than a line from a favorite book. The smirk on her lips was enough to tell him otherwise, even if he didn't understand what she had said.

He pulled Impa up from the platform by her right wrist, yanking her to his side with force. She allowed him to do this, even though it exposed Zelda to anything that he could do to her. The princess nearly toppled over the steps when her shield had been pulled away from her, her hands reaching towards the Sheikah. Impa rolled her eyes at this, hating to stoop so low as to _act_ like she was a helpless woman instead of a Sheikah warrior. _If I wasn't so worried about Zelda and Kaya, I would kill him,_ she thought bitterly, balling her right fist in anger as she attempted to yank her wrist free. She didn't use much strength to do so, allowing the king a spare moment, and smirk, to reflect a small victory on his part.

"Impa, Impa, Impa," he said, shaking his head several times. "I am glad I caught you in mid-spell or otherwise you'd be hanged for the death of a Royal Family member."

"Shows how much you know," Impa spat, knowing full well that if she had killed him, and the guards had taken her to one of the dungeons underneath the castle, it would only be a few hours out of her life that she would have to spend there. Once the king died, the throne would go to his widowed queen until his heir, if any, was at the age where he or she could take the throne. Kaya would not allow a Sheikah to be imprisoned under her rule, not for long at least.

"Try as you may to give the illusion that you are in control but you shall not be stronger than I." The king had to smile at that, even as Impa suppressed the urge to laugh at him in his face. Instead of giving into the raging emotions that were threatening to boil over, she stared at him with ice in her eyes. The girl on the platform was the only thing at the moment that was keeping her from lashing out at the man in front of her.

"I will be more powerful than you can imagine, when the time comes," Impa said in a low voice, keeping her face as calm as her words were not. Even now she was more powerful than the king himself, but she couldn't let on what she knew despite everything that she held close to her. If she even let out one ounce of superior strength, he would find a way to be a step up from her.

With those words that she spoke, his smile turned into a deep frown and a low growl came from within his throat. The king threw the Sheikah back, wiping his hand on his robe like she was a piece of trash to him. She stumbled to the ground when she had been pushed, a hiss escaping her lips and her own growl coming from deeper inside then his had been. There was no reason for her to be hurt in any way, what the king had done to her was nothing like she was used to. Her body was used to worse things than what one person could do to it; if anything, it served as a reminder that she had to protect the ones that were much weaker than the man towering over her was.

Ignoring the Sheikah, he turned back to his child daughter and started to advance to the marble plateau. Zelda didn't move at first, unsure as to what her father was going to do but as soon as he started up the steps, her eyes went wide. Backing up, she attempted to get far away enough from him as possible yet as soon as her back hit the wall, there was no other way to get away from him. The king had nearly flown up the stairs and towards her, too fast for her to even dart away from him through the sides of the plateau. Her fear got the better of her, rendering her unable to even _think_ of any other ways to get past the man she feared more than anything in the kingdom.

"Listen you little brat," he breathed, placing a hand on the wall above Zelda's blonde hair. "I know you and Impa are keeping something from me and it will cost you more than the little free time you have to play."

"W-why do you t-t-think that?' Zelda whispered in a trembling tone, going into a kneeling position. Impa had long since gotten up, brushing the grass off of her body and stared at the king and princess. She would wait until the king left before she consoled the princess and mutter words of protection to her.

"I have my ways of knowing, child. Do not think I can't find out what you and that forsaken Sheikah are hiding. I know many things and can find out even more by ways in which you do not understand. That is why _I_ am king." He stood up straight, turning his body towards the entrance of the garden. "I _will_ find out what is going on even if I have to resort to killing. That is a promise I intend to keep."

As he walked down the marble stairs of the platform, he walked slowly past Impa and gave her a smirk without even looking towards her. That smirk faded as soon as he heard her go up the stairs of the platform to his daughter, his frown going even deeper than it had been before. He _knew_ the Sheikah was saying something to the child, something that he couldn't hear. If it was in the language of the Sheikah, then Zelda knew it just as well as her attendant. There was no one else within the castle walls that could understand it; even if he had to bring in another Sheikah that would, or could, turn traitor on one of their own, he would see to it that it would be done.

The king paused only for a moment at the two guards that stood watch over the garden where Zelda and Impa were, his eyes moving to both of them. They only glanced to him, giving solemn nods to their king before turning their heads back forwards. They had an unspoken vow to tell him whatever they heard within the confines of this very same garden and they would do so, even at the expense of their own lives. They watched as the king started forwards once again, leaving behind a weeping child and an unholy glare at his back.

XXXX

Sunlight drifted in from the large windows of the library, the blue and white curtains half way open to reveal the outside world that otherwise couldn't be seen. Stacks of books lined one wall, having no home to be put back to or had been forgotten by the ones that had gotten them down. A fireplace sat across from the entrance to the library, several chairs surrounding it and books lying on top of them. Several mice peeked out from their homes in the walls then went back inside as a maid walked by with a handful of books under one arm and a feather duster in the other. She hardly even noticed the tiny creatures that stuck their noses out and that would be the way it stayed until otherwise stated.

Books lined the walls that did not have windows, paintings, or doorways attached to them, pilling high on shelves that reached the high ceiling above. These books had been collected from all over Hyrule and beyond those same borders; some books were one of a kind that had a large asking price to them but were hidden treasures of the castle. The books had, for the most part, been abandoned for the servants to use at their leisure and a place where one could hide from the Royal Family. Not that it wasn't a place to find the queen when she wanted to read or to escape her duties for the day. It was a place for minds to wander away for a moment until reality came back around to remind them of their positions.

And that was where she was, standing at a bookshelf closest to the fireplace and a hand resting upon a ladder that allowed her to reach the upper shelves that were out of her reach. Kaya's eyes moved alone the titles, a candle lamp in her free hand as she squinted at the words upon the leather bound spines. The blue flame flickered, giving her light where the light from the windows could not reach. She was looking for nothing in particular, something to catch her eye so she could escape her reality for a spare hour or more. It would be enough for her that day but only enough to keep her sane before her husband found her talking with the servants once again. If only there was a way that she could escape her reality for longer than an hour.

A week had passed since Ganondorf had an audience with the king and her husband's mood had gone downhill since. She could find him lurking in every shadow that she went by, his eyes watching her intently as though she was in league with the Gerudo himself. They both ignored each other otherwise, both going about their duties as though nothing else had happened. The rumors around the castle, however, were enough to keep her away from him until their duties told them otherwise.

The king's temper had been tested numerous times by servants who found themselves without jobs soon afterwards if not their freedom or worse. Perhaps it was a blessing since they no longer had to work under someone who thought they were less than the dirt underneath his boots. Their only solace had been the pay they had once received. Kaya had decided not test her husband's wraith for the time being, making sure she kept out of his way.

The king had hardly stopped mumbling about Gerudo running amok in his country, often having guards' double check the Market whenever they were stationed in the township. Kaya hadn't bothered to ask why guards of the Royal Family need worry about common thieves hiding inside the township, since the merchants of the stalls often took thievery in their own hands. The king wouldn't do a thing about the Gerudo, as long as they did not bother him nor did they enter the castle walls where he felt the safest from any outside threat.

She had seen the aura surrounding Ganondorf when he had left and it wasn't a pleasant one to be had, not when she had a bad feeling the dark aura would surely spell trouble for Hyrule. If she felt any better in thinking that the two would take care of each other before the dark aura consumed the land, she would not have worried about it so. However she knew better than to dismiss these kinds of aura's when she couldn't be sure if, or when, events would happen.

Kaya sighed, moving her hand from the ladder and rubbing her forehead to stop a headache from forming. She was becoming tired of having to tiptoe around the castle on eggshells and having to keep her voice low enough so that the walls would not take her words to the king. The maid in the room seemed to sense her queen's tenseness, her eyes drifting over to her and a small smile was offered. She smiled back, a small exchange was all that was needed for the two women to understand. Although they both held different positions within the castle, they both were prisoners of the same kind and no title could say otherwise.

"Do you need something to calm your nerves, Kaya?" The maid asked as she put the books down next to another pile that had gathered. When there were no officials from other countries that were visiting or the king was not within earshot, the servants had always called the queen by her given name. Kaya had insisted on this, keen on keeping her titles elsewhere and not with her at all times. Most of the servants seemed to accept this, however there were still those that called her by her title in spite.

"Yes, please. Perhaps some of your famous bark tea," the queen said, giving two nods to the maid. Bark tea held a certain sweetness to it, made from the syrup of a tree she had long since forgotten the name of, hot milk, two spoons of sugar, and a mint leaf and, if she was really needing something to soothe her, a few drops of Hylian brandy. It had always soothed any headaches whenever she had one and often asked for it when she could. "Make yourself some and see if the cook has lunch ready."

"Right away." The maid gave several nods in place of the formal curtsy, placing the feather duster down where she had placed the books. She didn't hurry to the door like she would if the king had ordered her to fetch something for him, instead held a medium pace that warranted a few extra minutes to get lunch for the queen and something for a headache. Kaya would hardly notice the extra time spent lingering elsewhere in the castle, her head turning back to the books on the shelves. As long as her mind was focused on what was in front of her, her nerves would most likely calm themselves before the maid returned.

Her ears picked up the sounds of footsteps inside the library, ignoring them as she placed her free hand onto the leather bound spine of a book that was worn with age. Servants often came and went inside the library and there was no sense of something out of place with those same footsteps. As she turned around with her head down, she hardly noticed that someone had come up behind her and stood in her direct path. It wasn't until she bumped into that person, dropping the book in the process and nearly the candle she held in the other hand, did she look up and take several steps backwards. There, standing with a fierce look on his face, was none other the king of Hyrule himself. Kaya wanted to gasp out and demand what he was doing there, but her lips remained closed and her eyes stared at him with what was now mild surprise.

His presence alone in the library was sure as suspicious as any Gerudo presence in the Market, his cold eyes staring darkly at her. Kaya took several more steps backwards before her back was pressed against the book shelf and she couldn't go any further. The expression on his face warranted an odd look from her, her hand shakily placing the candle onto a shelf behind her so she wouldn't absently use the flame against him. There was the urge to use the candle to burn the man standing before her so that he could feel a pain that held more than what she could do to him otherwise, her mild confusion evaporating, her face becoming expressionless as the light that shone through the windows.

"What are you doing here?" Kaya asked after several tense moments of silence, after she found her voice to speak. The king took two steps forwards, his eyes watching her intently and head tilting to the side.

"I could ask the same of you, but knowing what kind of hellish answer you'd give me I wouldn't believe it otherwise." He didn't move any further then he did at this point, intent on just watching his queen stand there like a statue. "I do, however, want to know what lies you are feeding that damnable daughter of mine."

"I have no idea what you are talking about," Kaya replied coolly, giving her head a quick shake. She started to move forwards, a few paces past the king before she was pushed backwards against the bookcase. Instead of holding her by the arm like he usually did when he wanted answers, the king took the short few paces forwards and pinned Kaya against the books behind her with his body and hands. She squirmed to get free, her eyes darting wildly for anything to help her get away. Her hand was pinned against a book and couldn't reach for the candle that she had placed only a few inches away.

"I'm sure you do, Kaya, I'm sure you do. I don't know what you or that Sheikah fiend is doing, but there will _not_ be any brainwashing of _my_ heir that comes from either one of you." He kept his body against hers, a smile spreading along his lips. Kaya growled at him, her eyes narrowing and her teeth bared; she could feel his body moving in closer to hers. "Oh, how angry of a woman you are, Kaya. If you are so tired of living the life of a queen, there is always the choice of leaving the castle and never returning. You'd be hunted down of course, but the question is how long would it be before the guards find you and drag you back here?"

"Long enough, dear king, long enough," Kaya spat, gritting her teeth together to hold back her tongue from saying anything else. The offer of leaving the castle was tempting to her of course, yet she _knew_ she would be hunted down if she ever so much attempted to run away. Even on the rare chances she could leave without the king present, with armed escort at her side, there still were no chances of her leaving peacefully or without a fight.

He snickered at her, pushing his body off of hers and taking several steps backwards. Looking over her, he envisioned his guards on the hunt for a traitor to the crown, a woman that had shared his own bed with him and the throne. Any woman in the land would walk through fire, over water, and through forest to have the same position that Kaya had and here that woman was ready to give up the crown for her own sake.

The thought of seeing her half-starved, nearly lifeless body in the dungeon was almost as appealing as it was to see the Sheikah's body hang in the Market square for all to see. And, yet, he had to maintain the image that there was a peaceful nature about him, the ruler that had united the warring state of Hyrule and brought all of his enemies to their knees. Perhaps he was still like that and maybe something else entirely.

"I may just give you that chance one day. If I do, I'll give you a two hour head start before the hunt begins. Where would you go? What would you do?" With that, he turned around and took long strides towards the door, nearly running over the maid that held a silver plate in her hands. She did her best to bow down to the king, but with limit ability to move because of the platter in her hands and the unwillingness to comply, it appeared that she was in defiance of him. There was no notice of someone entering the library by the king, as he turned in the other direction and walked quickly towards his study. He had treaties to sign and his own lies to weave around others, the maid watching him go and shaking her head in disgust.

"Damnable man if I ever knew one," she muttered inwardly, turning her attention forwards and entering the library with lunch and bark tea for two. What she found inside was the queen sitting down where she had been pushed against the bookcase, her back and head pressed against the bookcase and eyes lightly closed. "Kaya, are you okay? What happened?"

Kaya didn't answer right away, her eyes opening as the maid placed the tray down on a nearby table and rushed up to her. She kneeled down in front of the queen, her eyes moving from side to side to see if there was any bruises or markings of any sort that warranted a check-up from the castle doctor. There was no sign of a struggle, just merely the nerves of a woman that had been pressed too far and for too long in her life. If the king _had_ done anything other than push up in a corner and gave her a dire warning, he would not have been so lucky to have left the library with the air of superiority like he had. Whatever dignity was left in her, Kaya mustered it up to allow the maid to help her lightly to her feet and a stern look came upon her face.

The maid didn't bother to ask for any more details, backing up to allow the queen more space to regain her composure. Kaya hardly looked as calm as she had been left before, her eyes moving to the candle that had been placed onto the shelf for a moment before they darted quickly to the doorway of the library. The maid followed her gaze, taking the subtle hints of what she had wanted to do to the man that had left the room in a rather normal rush. Neither one had to say a word on what had happened, the maid having a faint idea of what transpired between queen and king and she would leave it at that. Oh, the other servants would know of what happened in the library - only the ones that could be trusted to keep their mouths shut and offer ideas on what to do. As long as there wasn't any more gossip then there needed be, there would be a few more kind souls that would look towards the queen with a smile and a nod.

"If you knew any place to hide, where would you go?" Kaya asked as she walked as calmly as she could to the table where the platter of food and tea was sitting. The maid followed her behind, confused but still thought of the question as something she could answer without knowing what had exactly happened between king and queen.

"In another World, perhaps," the maid answered, pulling out a chair in front of the table to allow Kaya to sit down. "A place where only the deepest and perhaps darkest magic could send you. Oh, it wouldn't be anything horrible." The maid had to add the last part quickly when Kaya gave her a sideways look as she sat down. "Not all dark magic is meant for evil, Kaya. Sheikah use dark magic, do they not?"

"So I have heard," Kaya mused, reaching over and taking a ceramic cup from the platter. She stared into the liquid for a moment, the maid sitting down in the chair opposite her. "What do you mean by 'another World'?"

"Another World that is not our own, not like the rest of the World we live in. I mean a place that's different, something that isn't here. Our World, I mean. I'm not making any sense, am I?" When Kaya shook her head, the maid laughed and sighed. "I can't explain it any better than one that knows of the other Worlds that inhabit the stars. You are better off asking one who does."

"I plan to." Kaya looked up from her cup, a firmness set in her eyes. "Who do I ask?"

And to that question, the maid smiled.

_Beyond_ Book series and all original characters © Ameera Mae Laramie

_Legend of Zelda_ games, characters, and places © Nintendo and their original creators


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter Four:

Darkness had befallen most of Hyrule as the light faded, the day waning into the night that awaited the land. The moon had already started to rise above the tops of the trees that were on one side of the land, the sun showing the last of its rays as it dipped into its slumber until it would awake the next morning. Creatures were beginning to find spots to fall asleep in, careful not to be out in the openness of the Field in case there were other creatures that would be about.

There were more dangers during the night then there were at day, the rumors of skeleton-like children running amok in the Field were hard to ignore. If they were true in any sense and rumors usually had a small sense of truth to them and if they were to be believed, then finding a suitable hiding place was better than trying to fend these same dangers alone.

The market was just the same, just slower than the world outside the confines of the protective walls that held the monsters of the night at bay. Three-fourths of the stalls were already closed for the day, unsold items packed up and brought home to be sold the next day and the next after that. The rest were starting to wind down for the night, laughter rising up from the merchants that were still there. The warmth of the day gave way to the coolness of the night, a sign that there was still a small chill to the air but not enough to keep anyone's spirits down. There would be a small festival of lights that would be shown as soon as the sun fully went down, something for the children to see and enjoy. The sky above would be lit with the lights that were bought from a neighboring country, to mark the beginning of a new season.

However, there were eyes that watched the last of the merchants take their wares away from their stalls and into the back alley's that were hidden behind the tall houses and shops. There was no interest in the merchants, not this late in the day. Those eyes stared past the stalls and into the building that sat on one side of the market, looking up and down the Temple that housed something valuable. There were things that made it seem like nothing was hidden there, nothing important anyways, and those that kept the Temple clean wanted it that way. There were few outside the keepers of those secrets that knew about it and those that _did_ know were about to enter the Temple to see what else they could find out.

As the last of the merchants disappeared into the back alleys, three bodies stalked out of the shadows and into the dying sunlight. From what little light there was left, the long hair held on the top of their heads, dark skin, and clothing gave them away as Gerudo. They were the last of those that stayed behind to scout out the market, to see if they could hear anything that no one else could hear and to bring back anything of value in their travels. What they found only fueled a longing desire of power, something that they had been sent back to the township for. They weren't going to attempt anything foolish, just on a scouting mission to see what dangers lie behind doors that would eventually be opened.

They paused only for a moment at the entrance of the path that lead to the castle, their heads turned towards the structure that loomed overhead even at this distance before they sprinted forwards. There was only an hour and a half's worth of time before the market would be full again, of children and older Hylians alike that awaited the show from above. The Gerudo knew they had only a short amount of time to poke around the Temple grounds, to see if there was anything that would be used against the family that held them at bay for so long. Their intent was simple and to the point, their plan not nearly as flawless as it sounded. It was a scouting mission, to gather as much information as they could before leaving for their desert home. Their troubles were far from over, if they could say that willingly.

Two of the three shadows stopped at the few steps that went to the Temple grounds, hands placed upon the hilts of their swords. The third walked up the stairs, her eyes looking around for a moment then focused on the structure in front of them. The massive Temple stood several stories high and held a large room, enough to hold the entire population of the township inside of it and perhaps the entire races of Goron, Zora, and Sheikah as well. Despite the sheer size of the Temple, it was only one story high in the front chamber; the ceiling inside rose high above and tinted glass windows allowed light and darkness to seep within.

The back chamber was a secret, since no one had ever seen the inside of it since the last time it had been opened and that had been centuries before. The rumors went that a sword of divine power sat inside that very chamber and the only way to open it was to find the right stones to enter the chamber itself. However, that was just a rumor that fueled a fire that flared higher than the Mountain of Death itself. If the rumor held any truth to it and these three could find a way to prove it, then they would be able to sleep soundly for a time.

Their eyes watched for any signs of movement along the lush gardens, their own strides quick and careful as they ascended the few stairs and walked along the stone pathway to the Temple. Already five of their sisters had been caught on Temple grounds and these three weren't about to make the same mistakes that had been made before. All they needed was a brief outline of the Temple itself, how well guarded the inside and outside was, and if there was anything of interest around it, nothing more. Had the Gerudo before them not been so boastful about their stealth skills, they would have found themselves here or in Ganondorf's court instead of the king's dungeon.

The three women stopped once again, their ears pricking up as they listened. Voices could be heard faintly from somewhere, their heads turning just enough to understand where the voices were coming from and if there was any threat to their mission. It took them a moment to realize that there was no one but themselves there, the voices floating from the market and fading towards the back alleys. The Gerudo returned their gazes to the Temple in front of them and went about their duties as they were instructed to. The gardens weren't too big and there were no threats from guards - in fact, there _were_ no guards around the Temple. At least, the ones that they could see and who could see them right back.

A lone guard had been stationed at the back of the Temple to insure that nothing came from behind it, which the king had insisted there would be an attack from. It was just an excuse to break in a new recruit, to see how long he could take boredom and find a way to keep himself entertained until he was relieved of his duty by the next new guard. If they could survive a week of these shifts without walking away, they would hold their first rank within the king's guard until such time they were promoted or thrown out. Whichever was more suitable to them.

Time was on their side for once and they would take every last second to look around the Temple and the grounds around it, to find what they were looking for and if there was anything else they could do before stalking out of the township for the last time. They stopped at the entrance of the Temple, satisfied that there would be no wandering eyes watching their leader when he came to take the Triforce by force when the time came for him to do so. Two of the three stood at either side of the Temple's doors, the third standing in front of it as she ran a hand along the wooden doors that separated the front chamber from the rest of the township.

"I wonder how many have stood in front of these doors and wondered what powers built this structure," she said to her companions, taking a step back and gazing up at the Temple in full. Even as a Gerudo, she was amazed at the Temple for all that it was worth. The other two Gerudo did not respond with words, just a faint smile that echoed the words of their comrade. All three shared the lingering thought before the one standing in front of the doors turned her attention back forwards and pressed one of the double doors forwards enough so she could poke her head inside. She stood there for a moment before she disappeared inside, giving her enough time to make sure that there was no one besides her in the front chamber.

The two remaining would stand guard until their companion exited the Temple a short time later, to make sure no one entered to bother her in her search. How long she would be in there was only subjected to how much information she could process to memory before returning to the outside world so that she could inform Ganondorf of her finds. Only then could a small power become something greater, even if it was a hidden evil that drove it.

XXXX

_Mist swirled around her, a light wind swirling the fog as Princess Zelda stood in the meadow that she thought was Hyrule Field. She didn't know exactly where she was or why she was there, perhaps near where the place called Lon Lon Ranch was located. Claps of thunder and blinking lights from lightning clamored above her, a cold chill about the air made the hair stand upon her neck and made her cringe. The winter season was over with and there was no snow upon the ground, not even to lightly dust the soft grass beneath her. There were different sounds coming from around her, from the cawing of ravens to the sounds of footsteps running in the mist. Several times she reached out to see if there was anything there but every time she came back with a fist full of mist and air._

_She was a good deal older then she was in the realm of the awake, a few years older but still held youthfulness to her face. Her hair was longer and blonder, held back by a braid and by a golden crown that sat atop her head. She wore a pearl-white gown that flowed down to the ground that held the Royal Family's crest, a necklace of gold and silver tucked underneath her neckline. In this haze of a dream, she could only assume she was already brought up to the status of queen but could not tell if she was married to a foreign prince or she would rule over her own country. That was a trivial matter to her right now, holding no importance to her unless it mattered on where this dream-vision took her._

_Zelda did not know why she was standing out in the Field that she had only seen once before nor did she know why she was all alone out there. Unlike the last dream-vision she had, there were no guards around her; instead, there was nothing but an open space where grass, trees, and other things should be. The mist covered this up well enough as though it did not want to show her any more than it had to show. That was the way the dream-visions went, until the mist or darkness lifted and she saw the images of the present and future._

_The sounds of thunder and lightning soon faded away, the sounds of ravens and other dark creatures silencing as the hooting of an owl took over. She turned around several times, taking a step forwards to what she thought was the eastern direction, both hands grasping the misty air around her. Soon the only thing she heard was her own gown rustling against the grass beneath her and she stopped at the silence that came afterwards. She was not accustomed to hearing the silence of these dream-visions, not when there had been cries of desperation and screams of pain in them before. This one was different and would soon become apparent as to why._

_"I am glad that you are here," a voice said from behind her. Zelda turned around quickly to see who had spoken, her eyes going wide when she saw who stood there. She had expected it to be Impa or even her own mother, instead it was a lone girl she did not know and could not put a face to. She stood about five feet in height at an age of about fifteen or so, yet she seemed much older than that. Her long black hair moved in the unseen wind that moved the grass and mist around, her blue eyes seemingly piercing thought the mist. Her ears were semi-pointed with two holes in each and her face was not like any other Hylian or Sheikah that the princess knew of. She wore the same dress that the princess wore but the difference was that it was black instead of white and she wore a long silver chain that held a crystal bauble upon it._

_"Who are you and where did you come from?" Zelda called out, her voice shaking with fear. She did not know who this girl was or why she had appeared in her dream once again and these appearances were starting to scare her even more with every one that she had. Was this apparition trying to tell her something about the future that lie ahead? If it was, she didn't want to know what it meant nor did she want to know who the girl was - all that mattered was that she wanted her to leave and leave quickly._

_Even so, she was surprised that she could see someone this well in such mist and a complete stranger if that; the realization that the dream-vision allowed her to see the girl would come to her days later, even if she didn't understand the reason. The girl did not answer those questions as she looked at the girl with sad eyes, an indication that something had happened to her or was going to happen soon. She placed a hand onto the bauble itself, tilting her head ever so slightly to the right as she smiled faintly despite the sadness in her eyes. From the few times that there were people in her dreams, the princess knew the expression upon the strangers face: it meant that there would be a sadness that would come about but also a great happiness as well. But what emotion would be for who or for what, the sadness for a side of good and a happiness for a side of evil or vice versa?_

_"You will see me again in the future, sister. I cannot tell you my name for I have not been give one at this time. But, I am one of your own as Royal Blood moves through my veins." The girl took several steps back as if she was about to leave. "You will know me as a stranger, and I am not of this World. We are as separate beings but are the same."_

_"Sister?_ _What sister?" Zelda demanded, taking more steps towards the stranger. "You are not Hylian and not of any relation to me! How can you be of Royal Blood?"_

_Despite her shouting the last of her words, they fell on deaf ears and echoed throughout the mist that still surrounded her. Instead of waiting for her to come closer and to answer the questions given, the girl turned around quickly and started to run deep into the mist until she could not be seen any more. Zelda stopped at the exact spot where the other had been standing, a confused and horrified look on her face as she feel to her knees. The world of the dream-vision started to spin around her, the mist becoming fainter and the silence more than deafening. There was nothing left for her to see, the world of the awake soon starting to appear once again..._

Zelda snapped open her eyes, sitting up quickly in her bed and staring at the wall in front of her. She was breathing hard, gasping out in the darkness that surrounded her room and finding herself unsure if she was still asleep or had awoken from her dream-vision. Even though she was no longer in a field that she assumed was the vast Field of Hyrule, the dream-visions she had would often transport her to other places that she was either familiar with or had never seen before in the short years she was alive. However, she reached out into the darkness that was her room to grasp something that was not there, bringing her hand to her to examine. In the darkness she could still see, her fingers opening up to reveal no mist that had been caught in her small hand.

She looked around to make sure, her ears straining to hear the sounds that had been in her dream-vision. There was no mist, no grass, and no claps of thunder or roar of lightning overhead. It was quiet, with the exception of hearing the sounds of the light show going on outside in the township below the castle grounds and the faint footsteps of the castle guards that patrolled the hallway where her bedroom sat. She assumed there was no one else in the room besides herself in the room, hoping that there were no strangers inside besides herself or any guards that watched her in her fearful state. If there were, they would only report to the king that his daughter had a nightmare and nothing more. She would not tell anyone, besides her caregiver, that she had a dream-vision instead of a nightmare and that was the way it was going to be.

The child laid back down onto her pillow, her eyes staring at the ceiling above. She was too young to understand the dream-visions she had and the ones that plagued her while she was awake, still unable to hold them at bay long enough to have a life that wouldn't be dominated by them. As she would grow up, the power that came with being a female of the Royal Family would be harnessed and she would be able to hold the visions back and understand them better. The lessons learned from Impa would, in essence, keep her able to cope with the powers that she possessed and enable her to lead a normal life as though she held no such power. At least, that was the hope as she closed her eyes in an attempt to fall back asleep.

Impa would know of this dream-vision eventually, when the two of them could be together after the normal studies that came with being a princess. And, yet, the details of the dream-vision would remain to herself, in a hope that she could do it herself without worrying her attendant and letting her father know what was going on. If she could.

_Beyond_ Book series and all original characters © Ameera Mae Laramie

_Legend of Zelda_ games, characters, and places © Nintendo and their original creator


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter Five:

Night had long since fallen upon the realm of Hyrule, the lower class of peasants and merchants moving away from the market once the last light in the sky had lit it up. The show of lights had lasted for ten minutes, children's wide eyed stares illuminated by reds, greens, and purples from the powders that were shot into the early night sky. They were soon carted off to bed to much protest, laughter ringing all the way to the back alleys and to their homes. It was a simple moment for a simple folk, one that need not wish for any more then to awake the next morning to crisper weather and the start of another new day.

They did not know that they had been watched the entire time by three pairs of eyes that soon moved away and out of the Temple grounds and through the same back alley's in which the simple folk were now going down. There were ways to get out of the township other than the main gate that lead in and out of the market, holes in the walls that protected the same people that were going to bed. Three figures had found the break in the wall three days earlier, something that not even the guards of the Royal Family knew of and they planned to keep it that way. It was a small opening, one that allowed the Gerudo women to pass through without much trouble and would be used in future raids. Eventually the wall break would be found out but not before it was too late and was used a great deal by those whose job it was to make sure things like this simply did not happen.

Inside the castle, there were other things going about that were overshadowed by the guard's and kept an eye upon by the very same men that patrolled the hallways and gardens of the castle grounds. The king was inside his study, two guards stationed outside to make sure that no one, not even the queen nor princess themselves, could enter. What he was doing was only a mystery even to the ones that were standing watch over him. They assumed he was doing the duties of a king: treaties that needed to be signed, prisoner release dates looked over, and the countless maps of Hyrule of old and new to stare at. His business was his own until he said otherwise and he planned on keeping it that way.

Zelda had long since been put to sleep, her own troubled dreams waking her up every so often but she did not cry out. The occasional guard that patrolled along the hallway her room was located on would ignore them if he did hear them, a smirk often accompanying a small laugh at the child's expense. There was no need to worry about the child princess, not when he had orders not to interfere with her unless stated by the king himself or, if he been on the receiving end of Sheikan magic, Impa. The queen held little to no sway over any guard, even if the king died and she was appointed the throne until Zelda was of the age when she could take the throne herself.

The only one that was out in the open castle was Kaya, unaware of most of the things that went inside and out of the castle. She moved along one of the lower northern hallways of the castle, Impa walking ten paces ahead of her with a lit torch in her hand. They moved towards the room Kaya often slept in by herself, away from her prying husband and the vast majority of guards that followed his command. It wasn't exactly a safe haven for her since it was still an open bedroom of sorts, but it did keep the pests that the king had buzzing around him away for the time being. She still feared the day when a guard would burst in on her in her private chambers and she would find herself in the dungeon with the thieves or worse.

Kaya had yet to find the right moment to talk to the Sheikah in private and it was a moment that she didn't want to wait forever to have. The maid in the library had given claims of great Sheikan magic devices that she had heard of as a child, yet even those claims could be proven false. It was hard to prove anything remotely Sheikah false or even true, perhaps tall tales to extend what the already mysterious shadow folk could do and hid well. Still, it was a chance that she had to take and take soon, for her sake and even Zelda's as well. The child clearly was not happy with the current conditions and there _had_ to be something done to change that, even if they had to leave Hyrule altogether. There were ways of getting out and Kaya would use those ways by any means possible.

The days after the incident in the library between herself and the king had not been talked about since then, the cold stares he gave her only made her feel worse than she already did. No words had to be exchanged between king and queen to know what the conditions of their marriage had started to become, not when the coldness of the room could be felt when they were in it together. The same dancing aura that she had seen around him the day that Ganondorf had come into the castle had returned but this time it was even more intense than it had been that day. Then it was faded colors that meant he was going to die a painful and slow death, however the ones that she had seen during their latest meal together had been different. It was the same aura pattern, same lights that weaved themselves around him, but this time they were bright greens and a fiery red. Greens usually meant prosperity and reds meant troubled times by the ways of Foretelling and that confused her. Did this new aura mean that there would be troubled times ahead but those times would be prosperous?

She didn't dare even try to make out what the auras around Zelda meant, whenever mother and daughter were together. The child had a purple haze about her that extended two feet around her in all directions and a pale white light emitted from the girl's forehead. Purple and white mixed together usually spelled out a calm spirit, one that would survive even into the next life but it also meant that there were other spirits that surrounded it. What kind of spirits and what the haze meant she did not bother to figure out, since she already knew Zelda was gifted in her own right and she would do well as a future queen of any land that she ruled. It also meant that the princess-heir had been an important person in her previous life, someone that had done something grand with her life and that would continue into this life as well. Other than that observation, Kaya refused to even try and determine what else the future held for her only daughter.

She sighed, her eyes moving to the right as they passed a guard lighting the candles along the wall. He hardly took notice of the queen as she passed him by, but the Sheikah he gave a second glance to even if it was a small look. Why would someone need a lit torch if they were walking down an already lit hallway was his only guess and he put the thought out of his mind completely. What the Sheikah did and said was nothing of his concern, one of the few guards that would not be bothered to stalk the corridors for information or bits of leaked conversation. His duty was to the Royal Family as a whole and not just to the king himself and that was the way he was going to stand by.

Rubbing her hands on her upper arms, Kaya stared at Impa's back and frowned at her. There was no movement in her body other than her moving with the hallway and her arm moving along her body, everything else remained still. The Sheikah usually was looking all about, making sure that there were no more eyes watching her then there need be and muttering something to herself about things long since gone. There was something wrong with her, something that she was not saying as truthfully as she wanted the queen to know. In truth, she would _have_ to divulge in her secrets sooner or later, by force or by her own free well. Regardless, those secrets would not leave the two of them if possible.

And there was something wrong, as Impa cautiously moved her eyes to one side for a split second before returning them back forwards. She did not need the torch light to see in the corridor; even without the light from the candles and the torch, she could see just fine in the darkness that still stung the faint edges of the hallway. It was more for the sake of _where_ she was going to lead Kaya then for anything else; a Hylian's eye sight was good, but it was not as good as a Sheikah's. Even so, the darkness of the rooms below the castle were just as dark as the swirling Wasteland of the desert, if it was any better than that. Besides that, there were things down there that needed the warmth of light to be seen if not heard.

There were words among the servants that the queen wanted something, information for things outside the realm of their own World and beyond those other Worlds. Mutters of other Worldly things often did not peak the guard's interest, but when it concerned the queen of Hyrule those same words often held things they could bring to the king. However, whatever thoughts they had of telling the head of the Royal Family were put aside as sickness spread through those that went along the corridors of the servant side of the castle. Oh, the servants were alright but the guards were not so fortunate - slight heaving and the pains of the head kept any leaks of information from reaching the king's ears. And it did it well, to the cook's own satisfaction. If the cook had any say in the matters of the queen's and princess's own health, he would sacrifice any means necessary to ensure that both were properly taken care of, his own life be damned.

What didn't reach the king's ears did, in fact, reach Impa's and that was the reason she was escorting the queen to her bedroom instead of a lone guard. She smiled inwardly to herself, proud of the interest that she had given to Kaya for other ways of leaving the castle. It was the last resort she had wanted everything to come to and the last resort it would have to be. _I don't have to look at her to sense the unhappiness that she has. She clearly does not want to be living in this realm of hell, and I don't blame her at all. She will have to know, despite the risks and setbacks, _Impa thought to herself. _It may put Zelda in more danger then she already is in yet that is a chance I am will to take. Zelda may not be able to go with her, but even _that _has to be done eventually._

"Kaya," she said suddenly, stopping short of the bend that was the last stretch before they reached a fork of hallways. Her eyes darted every which way possible, her head moving for the first time since they started walking towards the bedroom. She did that to make sure that there were no guards coming around to hear what the two would say in a short conversation that would reach the ears of those that should not have an interest in the say of the queen.

"What's wrong?" Kaya asked nervously, stopping several paces back from the Sheikah. She frowned even deeper and gave the outward appearance that she was ready to go to her own chambers. Inside, however, she secretly hoped that there was something worth being mentioned out in the open corridor.

"There is something that I have to show you. Something that you promise you will only use if you truly want to leave the palace behind." Impa turned around to face Kaya, her crimson eyes staring into hers. Kaya felt her face drain of any color that had been in it, almost certain that she hadn't heard right.

"Wait, how did you know that...?" Kaya started before she was cut off.

"What I know and what your husband knows is two entirely different things." Impa waved her free hand impatiently but smiled regardless. "I know things, Kaya. How do you think the maid knew?"

She opened her mouth to respond to the Sheikah's question but closed her mouth when her face lit up with understanding. _Not all dark magic is evil,_ she thought to herself, a smile coming upon her lips. If she had known that the conversation that had been between herself and the maid was started because of the same women that stood before her now, she wouldn't have wasted the days trying to muster the courage to ask. She would have done so without hesitation with the first hints instead of milling around the castle like she was afraid of something. Now that the two were on the same level, she would be able to ask what was meant by other Worlds and distant places but she would have to choose her words carefully. Not only were they out in the open, but words had the tendency to travel fast.

"Tell me, then. What is it that she meant?" Kaya then gestured to the outside world beyond that of the castle. "No matter where I go, I will have guards hunting me down and country folk knowing who I am."

Impa shook her head on this. "No, not Hyrule. Come, I'll show you."

XXXX

What transpired outside the four walls in his study meant nothing to him, as the king paced in front of a large oak desk that sat in the middle of the large room. No windows adorned the walls that stood around him, something only he was all too glad for; what lacked in windows and draperies allowed for other wall ornaments. Three large tower shields, one for each of the last three kings that served Hyrule, sat on the wall opposite the doorway, each one decorated with the Triforce symbol and brass, gold, and silver designs crisscrossing over the metal. A spear from the Desert hung on the right wall, just underneath a shelf that held a bronze scale encased in a silver orb and a small rock that came from the inside of Death Mountain. Hanging on the left wall, the shield of the current king of Hyrule, with few designs as the three on the wall next to it but still had the Triforce symbol upon it. When he died or stepped down from the throne, the same shield would move to the wall with the other shields and the next ruler would have his or her shield placed on the left wall. Other than these decorations, the walls were void of anything else that would give the room more life than it already had.

Two plants stood in the corners of the wall that faced the doorway, looking slightly withered and lacking the attention that should have been given to them. They were far from dying and could be sustained with water and nourishment, but without any sunlight coming in there was nothing else that would allow them to grow. They weren't small plants nor were they tall, just enough to give the study a piece of the outside world that sat beyond the perimeter of the castle itself. A rug that was crafted by a country outside of Hyrule saw its share of the king's pacing, more than it wanted to see and to feel underneath the ruler's feet. A simple rug made from simple woven thread and fabric and despite the design that had been crafted into it, the rug still did not bring any more color into the room. The only bright object in the room was the desk and even _that_ did not do much.

The desk that stood in the middle of the room held three pieces of parchment upon it: two were for treaties of countries that were too far away for the king to even bother with and the remaining held an arranged marriage proposal for Zelda. The arranged marriage sounded decent, with the suitor just five years older than the princess currently was and would come to live in the castle with Hyrule's Royal Family. It wasn't strange to hear of a proposal of another man's child to rule another country under a marriage agreement, but the king still not had signed it. There were four others that had come before it and those four had been in circulation even before Zelda had been born. Why so many foreign kings and queens wanted their sons to marry a brat that wasn't even old enough to go about the market without an escort, he couldn't figure out. Still, if he could find a way to pawn off the girl without having to worry about her and sooner, the better off he would be.

But that was not the reason why he was pacing in front of the oak desk and glancing at the two parchment treaties. Words from several weeks earlier came back into his mind, words that he had thought he had pushed out of his mind before. _Signed parchment can only hold for so long and it is only paper,_ Ganondorf had said in that meeting then and his words were somehow reaching his ears even now. Whenever the king even so much as merely glanced at those pieces of paper, he could hear the Gerudo's voice coming back to him as though he was standing right next to him. The treaties weren't what were worrying him, he had things sent to him from lands that were even further away than this one was. No, it was what the words did not say that bothered him so much that he could barely keep still. Alliances with the Royal Family would ensure the protection of the border around the land and a grand army would be formed between the three parties involved, liquidating any hold he, the king, had over Hyrule's army and even so far as the guards that stood outside his throne room.

The parchment did not specify who this grand army would follow nor did it say how long it would be formed. For all he knew the so-called _protection_ would last a few days, a few weeks, or when the borders of Hyrule were eventually breached from the outside and the armies would sweep over Hyrule like a plague. Somehow, that gave him a startling reminder that he had, once again, used too much haste to judge an alliance from within his own borders before he could test it out. However, in his mind, he used a rational explanation as to why he refused to accept any type of connection with the Gerudo: if they did something to harm the well-being of the population, the Royal Family would be looked down upon as thieves as well or worse. Why he bothered to keep the image of the good natured king that held no dark connections, he didn't know. There were no creatures in the land or beyond that could even remotely take him off the throne, in life or death.

Still, he did not know why the treaties were bothering him so much, as he stopped in front of the desk and stared down at the three pieces of parchment that sat there. Neat handwriting stared right back at him, the words etched upon the paper shouting up at him from the desk. He frowned at them, unsure if he wanted to send all three back unsigned or not. All three messengers were still waiting in the throne room for the king to come back to them with the parchments signed or not and he had a half of a mind to keep them waiting there until morning. That wouldn't sit well with all three lands regardless if there was already a treaty between them or not; rumors of other lands going to war with each other over a waiting period of even _minutes_ had started up wars that lasted for years. And he couldn't afford to send Hyrule into another round of wars that could go on for years, not when the land was still recovering from the wars that had plagued it for so long.

He sighed, rubbing his forehead as he glanced over towards the door that lead outside to the twisting hallways of the castle. He would eventually have to go out there and hand the parchments back over to the messengers, to send back to their lords in vain attempts at alliances and marriages. A smile came upon his lips at the thought when the kings and queens saw that the treaties and proposals came back unsigned, a chuckle escaping his lips. What pleasure he would have if he could see that in person! Even so, the smile was short lived as his shoulders slumped and he rolled his eyes at the doorway. He was in a bind, sandwiched between signing and not signing; he would both listen to the words of a Gerudo that he would pay no more attention to after this night or he would sign the three parchments and have them on their way back to their rightful homes.

And he would listen to something, even if it would start another round of wars that he did not wish to fight.

XXXX

She had followed quite reluctantly behind the Sheikah, going along twisting corridors that seemed to lead nowhere until a firm hand was pressed against the cold stone. New hallways were revealed as the two walked through the secret stone tunnels, the walls being pushed back to where they had been before. They had walked about ten minutes total, before Impa turned down a flight of stairs that Kaya had never seen before; then again, she had not been in this part of the castle before. What was down there could only fuel her interest and the mystery as to how she would be able to leave her life behind. If the Sheikah had to go to a certain length to keep something like this a secret, then it must be something very much important.

Kaya rubbed the upper parts of her arms, the coldness hitting her like a cold winter's breeze. From the little light that the torch offered, she saw the change in the stone of the castle go from a light grey to a duller, more blackish color of granite. They were going through several layers of dungeons, the upper most part they had just walked past without going through the cells and now they were going into the middle section of the dungeons. It was cold where they were, cobwebs hanging from the ceiling and the scurrying of rats underneath. The stairs eventually tapered off and Impa continued to move forwards like she had been down there more times then she cared to remember. _Where is she leading me?_ Kaya thought to herself, holding up her long robes with her hands. _Death is not the answer I want from all of this. Not while Zelda is so young._

She could barely hear the screams of pain and torture that came from the dungeons, the sounds echoing through the stone walls. The queen paused only for a moment, her ears straining to listen to the voices that were on the other side of the stone walls before she shook her head and hurried to catch up to Impa. The passage had sliced its way through the middle dungeons where the thieves and horse stealer's carried out their sentences, breaking up the cells into two parts. How, when, and why this passage was created when the castle was built or rebuilt was something she would have to ask Impa one day soon, when she didn't have to look over her shoulder when asking a question.

"Impa, where are you leading me?" She asked nervously, still perplexed as to how she could hear the screams of prisoners from the other side of stone brick. Were they being tortured so bad that they screamed loud enough to wake even the dead? Or was this the faint cries of the dead themselves that she had heard the Sheikah could control?

"You will see soon enough, Kaya," the Sheikah said simply, glancing over her shoulder. "I know what you are thinking and there is no need to worry. We are not down here for anyone's death nor are we here to make certain of the deaths of others. We are here to get you out of Hyrule as fast as I can."

"It sounds like a death wish to me," she muttered, frowning. Impa shrugged and turned her head back forwards. She would let the queen decide what she wanted to believe in, even before she saw what she would see. There would be no lengthy explanation at this point, not inside the castle walls and when there were ears to eavesdrop upon. Even with the precautions the Sheikah of the old put into, there were still ways of sending messages up to the world of the living above.

Impa stopped suddenly, turning around to face the queen underneath the torch light. Kaya stopped walking a foot in front of her. Their eyes met for a brief moment before Kaya turned her head over Impa's shoulder to see the reason as to why they had stopped so short. Behind her, a metal door stood where there should be no door there. From what she could tell, it was a pure silver door that showed no signs of rust or decay and yet still looked like it had been there for quite some time, perhaps for several decades at the least. A large symbol of the Sheikah, an eye with a teardrop, had been engraved in the middle of the doorway, symbolizing that what lay behind the door had been, in fact, Sheikah made or had the markings of old Sheikan magic.

"Inside is something that your husband does not know of and the last of the true blood of the Royal Family did not pass down through the adoptive line. In the past five generations of Royal decent, you are the first one out of the actual bloodline to see it and outside the realm of the Sheikah." Her words were soft and flat, her voice low and cautious as though she half expected someone else to barge down the stairs. "Queen Kaya, you are about to be shown something that has not been seen in over a quarter to anyone inside this castle that is still alive."

Impa turned to face the doorway, walking up to it as her hand moved along the golden knob and muttered words in the language of the Sheikah. For a moment, the door did not seem like it would open at all and the words of a Sheikah would not do. When it seemed like the magic touch could not open the door of silver, it opened and revealed a light shining from beyond the darkness. Once the light died down some, Kaya squinted to see that the door had revealed a small room inside, big enough to hold fifteen people inside. She blinked her eyes at it, her mouth moving into a thin line as she started to move towards the light, a certain curiosity fueling her steps to the door. When she walked past Impa, their eyes met again and this time Impa smiled at her with a certain glimmer of hope. She moved inside when she faced forwards once again, closing her eyes as she took the last four steps inside and stood in enough so that the Sheikah behind her could come inside.

She had expected the worst to happen when she went through the invisible shield made by ancient magic, but nothing came about other than a tingling sensation. When she opened her eyes, she expected the room to be filled with books and old artifacts that were from the olden days of Hyrule. Instead, she found the room to be quite empty save for eight torches in the room and a single marble altar in the middle of the room. In the four corners of the room, four of the eight torches sat that burned brightly enough to light the entire marketplace up to see even from the peak of Death Mountain. The walls were of some sort of odd marble with a silver tint to it and the floor of a much darker shade of green. The last four torches sat around the white marble alter, reflecting off of a small sliver box that had been sitting inside the room for longer then she could ever imagine.

She walked towards the alter, her eyes moving onto the box as she carefully moved towards it and around the torches that also acted as a barrier for those that had the fortune of finding the room. She did not hear the sound of the door closing behind Impa or the sound of the torch the Sheikah had been carrying as it was thrown on the ground with a thud. She walked up the two steps that lead up to the rest of the floor, her eyes glistening off of the light of the four torches as she ran a hand along the top of the box itself. It wasn't dusty nor was it cold, but rather clean and a radiance of heat emitting from the center of the box. It was as though someone had been down in the room recently, lighting the torches and keeping the box as clean as it possibly could be.

"Go ahead, Kaya, and open it," Impa coaxed from behind her. Kaya blinked her eyes, coming out of the trance that she had been in as she turned her upper body around to face the Sheikah. She nodded to her, Kaya blinking her eyes once again before turning her gaze back to the silver box in front of her. Placing both of her hands on the box, she slowly lifted the top ever so gently to make sure that it didn't break; no matter how old or new it was, things could break and they often did when touched. With a brilliant shine awakening, the box was opened a light poured out from within it, just as the light did when she had entered the room only a few minutes before. Once it had disappeared, Kaya stared inside of the box and allowed her vision to return back to normal. There, inside of it, was a chain pendent, a clear bauble hung in the middle of a silver chain as it laid neatly on a maroon-colored pillow.

For five minutes, Kaya just stared at the object inside of the box and concentrated on it with all of her might. She had expected something more of value to be kept inside of a vault such as this, with all the secrecy that had been taken to ensure nothing would come of it. The chain itself appeared to be nothing more than a typical silver necklace that could be found deep within the mines of Death Mountain and the clear bauble was nothing short of a low grade crystal, if not glass. To her, it was a piece of junk that a traveling gypsy would call a treasure and not an ancient race that had more history then Hyrule did as a whole land. Still, she put her right hand into the box and raised the pendent out of the box, just so she could get a better look at it in more light then she could with it being inside the box.

"What is this?" Kaya asked as she turned around to face the Sheikah, who had more explaining to do then the queen did for being down there. If this was a trick or a poor attempt to satisfy a desire to leave her life behind, then Kaya would personally find a way to cut the tongue out of the attendant that stood before her.

"That is your way out of this realm. You can travel to any other World you want to, whenever you want to," Impa answered, seeing the disappointment on the queen's face. "It is a pendent that has been hidden down here for the last five hundred years."

"Explain, please," Kaya said irritably, waving the pendent in the light. "I don't understand how a pendent like this could allow me to travel between Worlds nor do I fully understand what this 'traveling' means."

"Kaya, your voice," the Sheikah hissed through clenched teeth, her eyes moving towards the doorway. "I can't explain in here, not with us being so close to the dungeons. I understand your frustrations, I really do. I had the same thoughts when I first saw it and believe me, it looks like nothing more than a piece of gypsy costume jewelry. That is the way it is _supposed_ to look but remember that the simpler the design is, the more powerful it is."

Kaya didn't respond right away, her hand lowering down to her side and her mouth opening slightly. She had expected Impa to sound offended at the tone in which she, the Queen of Hyrule, had used and implied at such a cheap looking object being held in secret. She had, in fact, been disappointed that with the way the majority of Sheikah magical objects were, the pendent wasn't just as intricate. Perhaps that was the idea, to make designs for weaker magical items that looked like they had power to it but reserve the more powerful magical items for things others would just look over. If Impa herself had not implied that this object held something more to it than what meet the eye, she would have discarded it as just what it looked like: a piece of gypsy costume jewelry and not something that she could connect as an object of magical nature.

"I'm sorry," she said, her face softening. Impa waved her hand at her, not caring for the guilty expression in which now resided on Kaya's face. The Sheikah knew the queen meant no harm in those words and, in fact, all those that saw the pendent had said the same thing but in different wording. She, herself, had expected the same that Kaya did but even more so because she was, herself, Sheikah.

"I won't explain here, not now," she said. "Though only Sheikah can open the doorway to this place, the walls do have ears to the outside palace. The king has his ways of finding out what goes on down here no matter how well protected these walls are. I can't take that risk of finding out about this. There is more than just this World to think about."

"But..." Kaya started before she was cut short.

"My queen," Impa started slowly, taking two steps towards the Hylian woman. "This is not the time to explain nor the place to, as nothing in this castle is as secure as it should be. I have a half-baked plan that we need to follow."

"Plan? What plan?" Kaya tilted her head to the side, attempt to refrain from even smiling. When any Sheikah said that they had a half-baked plan that needed to be followed, it usually meant that it was an idea that meant they had to sneak their way around to get done. How the Sheikah race used odd words for things still remained a mystery to her and it often left her very much amused.

"One morning at breakfast, I will tell the King that we are going to go into Lake Hylia with Zelda and we need the fastest horses in Hyrule to get there before noon. We will be having a picnic there, just to deter the King's suspicions and ears although I suppose we will have to bring several guards with us to make sure we get there safely." There was a momentary lapse of irritation at the mere mention of guards, but she continued regardless. "I will bring the pendant along though I won't be able to show you where it leads because of the risk it might bring to your daughter. Even I don't know where you will end up when you use it."

"What about the Gerudo? The Hylia is too close to the valley to do much of anything." Kaya's worry about the thieves was well founded, even for one that had little contact with them outside the few times she had seen them thrown into the dungeons and Ganondorf's own audience with the king.

"There is no need to worry about them, since the Hylia is Zora protected," Impa said soothingly, suppressing her own worry about the Gerudo. Too often she had heard of the Gerudo entering the lake and doing damage to the Temple that resided underneath the water but Kaya did not need to know about that. The Zora took care of those that decided to damage something of importance to them. "They have little to no reason to be in or around the lake."

"But..."

"Kaya, don't argue with me," Impa said sternly, overriding the queen once again. This time, Kaya closed her mouth completely and pushed her lips into a thin line. If she did not have more than a few good reasons to keep the Sheikah around, more than her husband did, then Impa would be more then out of a job. "This is for you and you alone. If you so choose, I will attempt to arrange for you, Zelda, and I to go to the Hylia for the picnic. There I will tell you of the pendent and how it works. Will you do this?"

Even with the prospect of leaving Hyrule where her husband couldn't form a hunt after her, there was still doubt on her mind. Thoughts raced inside her brain, going over and over the different reasons why she couldn't use the pendant in her hand. Zelda was the only thing keeping her from taking the pendant now and attempting to use it without any help from Impa. But what would stop her from using it when Impa told her of what it involved and how to get to another World entirely? Would she be able to do it, or would she resign to the fact that she could not change her life based on Zelda alone? Something deep inside keep nagging at her, like it was telling her that she _had_ to take this chance or else something horrible would happen.

"Fine," Kaya said, raising the pendant to her chest. "What do I have to do?"

And at that, Impa smiled.

_Beyond_ Book series and all original characters © Ameera Mae Laramie

_Legend of Zelda_ games, characters, and places © Nintendo and their original creator


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter Six:

The night air of the desert usually was much cooler than the air that swirled during the day, giving way to a much more bearable temperature. Even during the winter months, the heat from the sun bore down upon the Wasteland but those days seemed like the spring and summer nights that crept ever so slowly upon the desert. The dwellers of the desert were long used to the never ending cycle of heat, the comfort of a more natural climate something they had given up for more secretive place to dwell. And secretive they managed to keep, long after the wars had ended and the lands had started to fly under new alliances. The desert, however, would remain free so long as their alliances were kept in the dark and they were left alone.

Most of the occupants of the Gerudo Fortress had gone to sleep by the time the moon had reached its peak, finding one last comfort in the beds that were well hidden even to those that knew the Fortress well. There would be no backstabbing while one slept, not unless the secret passageways were open and the Gerudos made her way through the rock and sand that the Fortress was made of. The law of backstabbing dictated that one must be able to defend herself by force and answer to the words used against her, however that still did not deter any of her sisters to take a more direct approach against another sister. Even the thieves of the desert did not have to worry much about finding a dagger in the back in the morning; despite their thieving ways, the Gerudo still had a code of honor to uphold. There would be no sleepless nights in this Fortress, none that came from the womenfolk that slept soundly in their hidden chambers.

One of the only beings in the Fortress that was willingly up at this hour was Ganondorf, who paced in front of the long ramp that lead up to the archery targets the Gerudo used to practice horseback archery at. His hands were clasped behind his back, a few beads of sweat going down his forehead but not from the heat that still rose up from the sand-filled ground. No, it was from the slight worry that placed itself on his mind. There were too many things crossing and crisscrossing his mind that he couldn't keep his one thought straight from the other, too many plans that were being worked and re-worked over and over again. If he could not concentrate on one single thought, there would be more than a few strangled words coming from him.

In the days after the encounter with Nabooru, he had seen less of her then he would have liked and more rumors stemming about the young thief. She was not from Hyrule and did not descend from any of the Gerudo in the clan, the rumor he heard the most from the middle-ranked Gerudo. Most if not all of the Gerudo had some sort of blood relation thriving in their veins, thin but the family ties were still there. Some bloodlines had died off long before Ganondorf had even been born while others were so twisted and confused that not even those that were related could tell the difference. Still, the rumors about the child-thief were too much for him to ignore, even when Callon had given him corrected information - or as much as she could, considering she had been the one to introduce him to her. How Nabooru managed to slither her way past the guards and into the dining hall at the starting point of her career, he didn't know and silently applauded her for it. Had he not been stunned at her directness, he would have had her killed for doing such a thing.

But it was not the rumors of Nabooru that kept Ganondorf up at this hour, rather the information she had given him and the last bits of details he had gotten from inside the market. The women he had placed throughout the market had come back with more than a few handfuls of rupees and items they could pawn off in another market somewhere else. The conversations they had heard of the Temple opening up for prayer on certain days had given him more than enough reason to send out several of his best thieves to poke around the Temple for anything more they could get. Out of the five, two had gotten caught and sent to the dungeons for crimes only the king of Hyrule could think of. The remaining three had come back unharmed and given him the layout of the Temple and its grounds, enough to give him an idea as to what to expect and where to really look for the Triforce. It wasn't much, but it was more than he had before.

As for the story Nabooru had weaved, that was the other thing that kept him up so late this night, his strides turning him around as he walked back the way he had come. He managed to get the names of those that had been in Nabooru's last five raiding parties and was surprised that eight out of the twenty girls she had worked with had gone with her on all five raids. Tracking each of the eight wasn't easy and at least one of them had been sent out of Hyrule for execution by the king himself already; the other seven were willing to talk, given that it was their leader that was doing the asking. If it had been anyone else, then they most likely would not have talked.

Out of the seven that were left, only two of them remembered faintly the tale that they had been told by old Sheikah women. They remembered stumbling upon the encampment that the Sheikah and learning about the story of the pendants from the women themselves. When the Gerudo were questioned as to what the pendants did, they just shrugged and said they didn't remember and, if they did, the Sheikah would not tell them regardless. After all, the two claimed, Sheikah had a way of keeping things to themselves and taking their legends to the grave. After the questioning was over, they stalked away and resumed their duties, giving Ganondorf the peace of mind that he had wanted to have since Nabooru had told him the tale. At least he could confirm the story even with the few details he managed to get from the two that faintly remembered it.

Now he paced in front of the ramp, taking little notice of the guards that were up as well and keeping an eye on the openness of the Fortress that wasn't confined to the stone and brick rooms. If what the three women had told him was true, he would have to find a way into the castle unnoticed long enough to find the lowest spot inside. From there he would search until he came upon anything that was not customary of a castle or it's dungeons; if he trusted the clan more then he already did, then he would have sent them down to get it for him. Like the Triforce, he wouldn't trust any of them with something that was just as valuable as the golden triangles if not more. Not one of his plans seemed to be workable, no matter how many times he re-worked them in his mind.

"My son, it is late in the night. You need to go to your bed and your sleep as much as the women do," an aged voice said from behind him. Ganondorf stopped and turned towards the ramp, just as Callon descended towards him with a torch in one hand and a golden goblet in the other. Thrusting the end of the torch into the ground as she stopped, she stared at him from the base of the ramp and frowned at him from underneath the torchlight.

"I am not like the women of the clan, and I am aware of the hour. I don't sleep like they do," he growled in a low tone, returning the frown at her and resumed his pacing. Callon stared at him for several minutes, watching him pace as she sipped on the wine inside the goblet. The man had grown more isolated since the dinner encounter, something he only did when he was about to strike something that was more powerful than he was or he was thinking on something. That was the first indication that something was more than terribly wrong, it was frightening. Normally Ganondorf did not go by mere legends alone but even the faintest twinkle of power and he lunged for it desperately. It made her wonder if there was more to him then what she saw pacing underneath the stars.

"You have not been able to sleep well in the last few nights and it is better if you do this for me," she said calmly and with little irritation she could hold in her voice. There were no commands that the head of the Gerudo clan had to abide by, only of that of the woman that raised him could actually sway his decisions if he _let_ them. Even with the order of sleep, there still was nothing that she could do to enforce it.

"Sleep will not come to me until I can think of a way inside the palace without getting caught or worse." Although he rarely went on raids with the others in the clan, he still was of Gerudo descent no matter how one looked at it. A thief was still a thief and he would remain one until he drew his last breath. "There is more than one power in that castle, and I plan to make it mine soon enough. I _want_ those pendants!"

The force in Ganondorf's voice shocked even Callon, who was the only one that truly understood the fierceness in which drove her adoptive son. The night sky was an ally to her, to mask the surprise on her face and the slight draining of color from her cheeks. She had seen two other leaders of the Gerudo come and go in her lifetime, the first one dead ten years before Ganondorf had even been a mere thought and the other dying at the hand of Ganondorf himself. They both had their set determination on things that were out of their reach, but this man that paced in front of her was _nothing_ compared to them. His goals were, by far, _greater_ than what the two of them had wanted - and the madness in his eyes told her that he would not stop short of _anything_ to acquire those wants.

"Nabooru could be lying about this. After she _is_ new to the clan and could just be telling you this story to get close to you," Callon said after a moment of silence. She did not dare go against the words of Nabooru despite the child-thief being so new to the clan itself. There were no Gerudo that Callon was remotely afraid of, save for two and the man in front of him was not one of them. "There are no legends that have been kept secret around here, not even from thousands of years ago."

"That is where you are wrong. That damnable Sheikah knows things that even the Royal Family doesn't know of. She is good when it comes to those things, real good." He stopped his pacing as he looked straight at his adoptive mother in the torchlight. Their eyes met for a moment before Callon broke her gaze away from him and pretended to be smoothing a wrinkle out of her pearl-white pants. "When she looked at me with those eyes from behind the glass when I left the throne room, it was like she could read directly into my mind. Anything and everything she could touch - my thoughts, my memories, my plans – she _knew_. It seemed like she was trying to figure out what I was trying to do."

"The pitiful creature was just trying to scare you, my son. Nothing more than that," Callon reasoned as best as she could, Ganondorf resuming his pacing once again. On his face that could be seen by the light of the crescent moon and the torchlight, an underlying anger had set in and that only deepened his already foul mood. "I wouldn't worry about it if I were you. Just go on with your daily business like have done in the past and the sun will set just the same. There are other treasures out there that are worth more than a mere pendant."

"I will _not_ do such a thing!" Ganondorf barked, casting a loathing glare towards Callon. The old woman ignored it, her eyes drifting to the torch she had placed into the ground beside her. "Remember, Sheikahs have a physic aura about them. They know things before anyone else does and they can hide secrets better than most normal Hylians can. That is why I _have_ to get a meeting with her or the king as soon as possible. I need to find out more, to understand."

"What makes you think she will tell you right out?" Ganondorf only snorted at the question, Callon narrowing her eyes at him. "If it is a Sheikan artifact, then she will try to guard it as best as she can and for as long as possible."

"That is why I need to do this, mother. I need to get her out of my head." That was true in a sense; the cold stare that had been given to him when he had left the castle only a mere couple of weeks before had haunted his dreams. He was not about to admit any more than that, not even to the shadows that danced along the Wasteland just beyond the high gates.

"I believe you are taking this matter a little too seriously. Do not dwell on something that you cannot find just yet," the older Gerudo said in a low voice. "Focus your attention back onto the Triforce or stop going after wild dreams. At least that is within your reach, or so says the ones that you put in more danger then they already are. It will only be a matter of time before you have that in your grasp and you can rule Hyrule like you should."

Ganondorf stopped his pacing once Callon had finished talking, his body facing the Fortress in front of him. His eyes moved over to where the woman stood, drinking the last bit of the contents of the goblet and sitting the cup down by where the torch met the sand. She did not see the pure hatred in his eyes nor did she seem to remotely care that his anger had started to rise because of her meddling. There would be no more words between the two, only a stare that lasted for a full three minutes before Ganondorf moved his gaze back to the Fortress. If he had anything else to say to her, those words would be directed to a bodyguard and then sent along to her when he wished to speak anything to the woman.

Instead of resuming his pacing, he walked swiftly towards the Fortress and disappeared within the dancing shadows of the night. He would not be able to think properly with Callon standing there, asking him questions and demanding that he stop his search for the pendants. The matron mother did not understand the importance of finding legendary Sheikan artifacts, not when she had never been in the presence of a Sheikah before. Had she seen how the Sheikah work with her own eyes, then she would be able to understand just how much a single artifact of theirs could exist and work.

There were other eyes that watched him move into the darkened corridors of the Fortress, many more then Callon's own eyes could see. Their interest in him lasted only for ten seconds before they, too, resumed their own nightly duties in making sure that the Fortress was safe from any intruders of the night. Ganondorf made sure that any of the shadows that were outside would not follow him into his chambers, his own ways of keeping safe having to do more with losing the ones that followed him rather than secrecy.

Callon sighed, watching the last of the dancing shadows retreat into the Fortress before she looked around her. She apparently was alone, save for the guards that walked along their own paths to ensure the safety of those that slept. However, she knew she wasn't all that alone, not even on a night such as this. At that moment, she didn't care to _be_ alone, not even when her thoughts still consumed her. Her thoughts usually came out as words instead of remaining inside her, an old habit she had yet to lose. That would get her killed one day, if old age did not claim her first before another stabbed her in her heart.

"Maybe it was wrong of me to have said anything about the pendants," a voice said in a low tone from behind her. She did not need to turn around to know that Nabooru had come up behind her, yet Callon turned around regardless to face the younger Gerudo. Both saw the other's face, worn and tired from the daily chores of a Gerudo woman. Nabooru had the raids she had been on, Callon had to keep the Fortress in order where Ganondorf could and would not.

They had not crossed paths too many times since the dinner in which Nabooru and Ganondorf had met, both for their own reasons. It was not a forced decision to keep out of sight from each other but rather the inability to get away from raids and the upkeep of the Fortress itself. Too many times Nabooru had wanted to come face-to-face with Callon and thank her for allowing the meeting between herself and Ganondorf to occur but the raids of other places had to come first before anything else. There had been other questions that she wanted to ask and those questions could not leave her lips even at this late of the night. The howling wind, no matter how soft and quiet it was, still could take answers to others in the Fortress grounds.

Callon had wanted to ask Nabooru how she managed to get the information on the pendants herself rather than listen to the rumors that were floating around the Fortress. Her adoptive son would have been the next choice to get that same information out, yet it would be better off for her to believe the rumors then to ask a question like that to him. There were other rumors that would need to be squashed like a desert rodent; like the questions regarding the pendant information, those would have to wait until a more opportune moment came to pass.

"No, Nabooru. You did right by saying what you said," Callon said after several minutes of silence, watching one last remaining shadow to the left dart into a Fortress doorway. "My son won't be able to find the pendants no matter how hard he tries. That is the way it will be and so shall it remain."

"Why is that, Callon? Ganondorf said he would do anything to get them at any cost." Nabooru looked unsure as to what was being implied. "I heard rumors of him, before he became the leader of the clan."

"Rumors?" Callon asked, attempting to look confused even in the light of the torch. Nabooru lost the unsteady look in her eyes and frowned at the woman in front of her; even though she was still a child-thief, she was not thought to be stupid.

"Yes, the rumors. He was a grand thief in his younger days, before he took the title of Gerudo King." There was a twitch of her eyes and the edges of her mouth moved slightly. "Besides, why _wouldn't_ he be able to do it? He is, after all, the leader."

Callon could not form the right words for Nabooru to understand properly, not even in the privacy of an undisclosed Fortress room. She knew Ganondorf the best when it came to his abilities and those abilities could, in fact, get him to hold the Triforce in his hands. That was his destiny, to become greater than he was now and become the most feared Gerudo for generations to come. Callon knew that from the moment she was told that she had to play the role of his mother, when his own mothers had other plans to keep. The baby that had been placed into her arms many decades ago had something about him that she couldn't explain, something that gave him the touch of destiny of a future ruler.

However, the Triforce had always been a Hylian legend and a true one at that; all Hylian legends had truth to them. Sheikan legends, however, could not be proven true in the same sense that they could not be proven false, in the ways of Sheikah, Hylian, and other races inside Hyrule. Only the Sheikah knew the truths behind them and those truths would not be shared with the rest of the land until the Sheikah were ready and willing to tell their dark secrets.

"He may lead the Gerudo to any extent and he does have a lot of talent as a thief, but he won't be able to do it." Callon sighed once again, her eyes moving around again to make sure that the dancing shadows had quieted down. "I may not know much about Sheikah nor have I ever met one in my lifetime, but you have. What was your first impression of them when _you_ saw them?

"Quiet," Nabooru said quickly, nodding twice. "Quiet and graceful, if that much, but knowledgeable about things that I couldn't even begin to imagine. The Sheikah I met were old but still did not look over half their age." Her nose wrinkled. "What does my impression of Sheikah have to do with Ganondorf?"

"Plenty, child, plenty indeed." Callon picked up the goblet she had placed on the ground and held it in the light so that the child-thief could get a better look at it. "This goblet had once belonged to a wealthy merchant some thirty years ago. In all truth, it is a worthless piece of gold that has no more value than two hundred rupees even three decades later." She then tossed the goblet to Nabooru, who caught it with ease. "I had stolen that goblet from the merchant and had received two deep cuts on my back for it. The impression I had of the merchant was that he was rich enough to afford pure gold, therefore was an easy target to steal from and would not be able to fight back."

"I still do not understand," Nabooru said, rolling the goblet in her hands. Even though the goblet had been deemed worthless, it still would fetch a decent price to feed the clan for a week and a half.

"The first impression of that very same merchant was that he was weak and could not defend himself. That changed when I faced him for the goblet you now hold." Callon smiled faintly at the memory, then shook her head. "Do not rely on the first impression of the things you see at a glance. Ganondorf believes that he will be able to get the pendants and that is the impression he has on obtaining them himself. He often relies on impressions of things to get what he wants and what he wants is those pendants. I don't believe he will gain anything of that sort."

"Why is that?" She asked, handing the goblet back to Callon, who set it back onto the sand. She now understood what Callon was trying to tell her, that things were not as they seem upon first glance or the first words out of another's mouth. "Regardless of his impressions, he could still get these pendants from wherever they are."

"He can steal anything he chooses to steal, but those pendants are not one of them. The Sheikah are good at hiding things and they won't be easy to find." There was a pause, her tone dripping with something that Nabooru could not identify. "They are not meant to be his, even if he does somehow find them. Not all things are meant to be found."

"What about the Triforce? Is that supposed to be found and claimed as his?" Nabooru wanted to know more vital information, to store for later use when she could use it to stab Ganondorf in the back for her own gain. If Callon had any inkling of any hidden intentions, then she was not showing them; even if she did, she still spoke as though she had decided to ignore her basic instinct to remain quiet.

"The Triforce is something that is meant to be stolen by anyone or anything in order to gain their deepest wish. My son can do that when he gains the knowledge of _how_ to get it." Callon pulled the torch out of the ground beside it, grasping it firmly in her hand. "However, it won't be his for long. Perhaps it is his destiny to become something greater through the Triforce; it is also his destiny to lose the Triforce."

"What do you mean by that?" She asked, staring at Callon with confusion. The older Gerudo smiled.

"In time you will know that there are things that are not meant to be stolen while there are even other things that were made to be taken but are not supposed to remain that way for long. They will return to their natural state when the thief has a chance to become a greater being then she already is. That era will end and a new one will emerge from the ashes." She turned halfway around, facing the Fortress. "As for things you are supposed to steal and keep, nothing will change and you will go on with your life like always. When you understand this, Nabooru, then you shall become one of the greatest thieves that has ever lived."

Callon moved down the last of the ramp, leaving Nabooru behind to contemplate on the conversation the two had and the goblet in the care of a new generation of thieves. A new generation that would break the gap between them and the rest of the World.

_Beyond_ Book series and all original characters © Ameera Mae Laramie

_Legend of Zelda_ games, characters, and places © Nintendo and their original creator


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven:

The duties she had a servant of the Royal Family kept her busy day-to-day but Impa found time for a brief moment of silence when she could. These moments were usually few and far between; when she could spare the moments to herself, she caught up on reading or a relaxing bath. As of late she had not been able to keep her mind on the words of a book for very long, her thoughts drifting towards the plans she had for the upcoming weeks and the promises she had kept to many inside and outside the castle walls. And those promising plans would eventually come to be, as soon as she could work around the last kinks of the road.

At the present moment, she found herself standing in the middle of the room that she called her own, her eyes transfixed on the window in front of her. It overlooked the gate to the castle and allowed her to see who came and went through the castle road before anyone in the castle did. It was another small advantage she had in a place as confining as the castle. The room itself exactly wasn't something exotic as the rest of the castle and that was the way she wanted it to be. The dark gray walls held nothing on them and the few items she had in the room were hidden in compartments she had created herself inside the walls and out of prying eyes. Her bed sat on the other side of the room, facing the window and the outside world that was beyond the castle and reach of the Royal Family.

She hadn't forgotten her promise to Kaya and she wouldn't, not even when Kaya left this World, and her life, behind. There were too many things to do in order to prepare for after the queen's departure that she _couldn't_ forget; how wasn't she was thinking about but rather _when._ Although Kaya seemed desperate enough to leave, she wouldn't do it hastily - not even with Zelda there watching. When she would be able to fulfill that promise was something she would have to do on her own terms and without any harm to the princess-heir. The girl had more importance then taking the throne to this kingdom or any others that bordered Hyrule.

It wouldn't be an easy task, preparing for an uncertain future; she had known that prior to Zelda's birth. Had the heir to Hyrule's throne been a male, then the future of the land would have been thrown into chaos. What would she have done then? Have the babe killed in secret so that fate would have a chance? No, she wasn't _that_ cold-hearted. She would have begged Kaya to have another child, one that would take the right place in history and the queen most likely would have done it regardless of how she felt about her husband. Attendant and queen both had their gifts and had high hopes for fate, even if they had to bend it in order for that fate to work.

The pendant currently resided in its container and stowed away in a hidden compartment in the wall, out of sight and reach from anyone but herself. There were seals on the compartment to keep any straying hands from taking it; it was a precaution she had to take because this pendant was the only other one she knew of that was still in Hyrule. Only Sheikah and high-ranking Hylian mages could break the seals she had placed. No mage would be stupid enough to attempt to break or toy with a Sheikah-made seal without Sheikah permission and most Sheikah would tell the king not to meddle in the affairs of a Sheikah, regardless of their position and duties to the Royal Family. She was more than confident to leave the pendant where it was until such time it could be taken out of its hiding place.

Impa sighed, turning her eyes from the window to the piece of parchment in her hand. On the parchment contained what she and Kaya would do and say when the time came to bring up the ruse of the picnic. Kaya _had_ to sound convincing enough to allow the king to believe that they were only going on a small trip to the Hylia and nothing more. If worse came, they would have to sneak out of the castle and to somewhere safe so that the pendant's secret would stay that way. Like the castle, there were few places in the Market where secrets would be told and the Temple wasn't sacred enough to hold them either. Still, chances had to be made and they would have to be, in the worst possible case.

"Damn," she muttered, folding the parchment in half and placing it into a small pocket. By the way the sunlight drifted into the room, she could tell it was getting late in the morning and afternoon would soon be upon them. Kaya would be starting her duties as queen shortly and Impa had the feeling the rest of the castle would be too busy for her to get to the queen later in the day. There would be too many things to do in preparation for another suitor that was being sent to Hyrule for Zelda's hand in marriage, giving the Sheikah precious little time to talk to Kaya. Turning to face the open door of her room, Impa walked quickly through the doorway and into the hallway; she was not worried about her room being left unattended and wide open. The only important thing inside the room was the pendant and it was closely guarded; any of her true possessions had been placed throughout the castle and were not of value to anyone but Sheikah.

From there she took a left and headed through several more passages, intent on taking short cuts and winding passages to confuse guards. Avoiding them would be for the best, even if they went to the king about her meeting with Kaya. It wasn't a secret that she wanted desperately to keep and it would do her case good if she was open about it with the guards beforehand. What the underlying intention was, the king would not have to know until it was too late.

And he never would.

XXXX

The secrets of a Sheikah weren't the only things that were being kept inside the castle and were the least of any king that would rule in the years to come. There were eyes inside the castle that could see better than a Sheikah, ears that knew more than the guards, and ways of bending the laws without being caught. They were well hidden in the shadows that danced along the hallways and rooms, keeping to the darkness that crept inside the very walls that protected the Royal Family. If the king knew more than he did, even he would not feel as safe inside Hyrule as he did now. If he allowed the secrets to continue, that is.

Several days had passed since Impa had shown her the pendant and Kaya was starting to grow impatient. She had yet to bring the topic of a lakeside picnic to the king, her voice quietly fading every time he came into the same room or corridor as she, the words fading before she had been able to speak them. Oh, Impa had not forgotten the promise she had given to Kaya but there was no right time to ask for a day away from the castle just yet. The king had kept both of them at bay for any requests, his threat still fresh in Kaya's mind. When and if the day came, Kaya would be the first to know and the first to smile inward.

At the present moment, Kaya stood on the platform that overlooked the garden Zelda often played in, her back turned towards the archway that lead into the rest of the castle. With her arms clasped behind her, she stared through the window that overlooked the throne room and watched as an ambassador from another land stood up in front of the king. There were so many treaties that had been signed in the last two months that all were jumbled together; so many faces to so many kings, queens, and ambassadors that she would never had been able to put names to faces. Even this man inside the throne room would not be but a fraction of a memory that she would not remember nor try to. If she ever saw him again, she would only smile and nod her head as though she knew him when she never gave a thought to him. It was not her duty to remember these faces and names, only to smile and act as though she had known these strangers all her life.

Her husband had his trademark smirk upon his face and the ambassador didn't look too happy about something; his gestures gave away what his words could not. He was not happy about something and the king pleasantly took the discomfort and joy in seeing another person squirm in front of him. The joy wouldn't last long and she knew it - even if she did not remember who the ambassador was a week from now, she would remember the kingdom he came from. It was a small country to the south, a place where a good portion of grains and melons came in weekly for merchants to buy. That gave the lower classes food to eat and rupees in their pockets, enough to live off of and to make breads and pies. If her husband did not watch his tongue, their main grain supplier would cease to come to Hyrule and that would not bode well for the population.

Kaya frowned, watching as the king spoke something to the ambassador, who stood where he was and crossed his arms over his chest. A white aura engulfed the ambassador, a small hint of silver snaking its way around the very bottom of the aura itself. The white aura meant a long life was ahead for this man and his family, a sign that would have made her smile instead of frown. However, the silver around the bottom of the aura meant that a big change would occur sometime during his lifetime and that change might just be today. There was no telling what would happen between these two kingdoms and she had a deep feeling that it wouldn't turn out as one would hope.

"What's going on in there, mama?" A small voice said from next to her. Kaya felt something grasp and tug on her skirts, her eyes drifting downward to see Zelda standing on her toes and trying to look inside the throne room. She held her gaze on the child for several minutes, her frown lifting slightly; there was no aura around the princess that day. She could see aura's in everyone that she met and quite often they disappeared after a short while, sometimes coming back up only when there was a major change in her Foretelling. However, Zelda seemed to have her path already set in stone and there were no dancing auras around her this day.

"Your father is just..." Kaya started before she stopped, her head jerking towards the throne room quickly. Two guards had grabbed the ambassador by the upper arms and were forcibly taking him out of the room. In the span of only a few minutes, her husband's rage had finally turned sour and the ambassador had enough of it. That must have prompted something to go wrong and now someone would be spending time in the dungeons while the treaty between two kingdoms would be torn up. "He is just doing what he _thinks_ is best for Hyrule."

"Did he send someone to the dungeons again?" Zelda asked quietly, letting go of her mother's dress. Kaya looked down at her daughter and watched her walk to the stairs of the platform and sit down upon the top step. It was not the words of the child that scared her the most, it was the tone in which she had used; it was not _normal_ for the girl to have gone from a wondering voice to an almost desperate tone. Then again, Kaya could almost see herself in Zelda and that gave her another pang of fear. _She will _not _go through the same hell as I did._

"Zelda?" Kaya walked over to the princess-child and sat next to her, her eyes watching Zelda closely with a hand hovering over her shoulder. Zelda sat perfectly still as though she was just a statue in the garden, her arms wrapped around her legs and chin resting upon her knees. Her face was pale, eyes looking distant, and the overall look of someone that had seen something beyond their years. That look alone told Kaya more than simple words could possibly say. "Zelda, have you..."

"Don't tell Impa that I had another dream again, okay?" Zelda's voice trembled, just as Kaya started to move a soothing hand over her daughters back to calm her. Kaya could not begin to understand the visions Zelda had but in essence the two of them were in the same boat as each other. The Foretelling of her own had begun when she had been a young girl but had been a few years older when the first auras started to appear. If there had not been any Sheikah present when she had been growing up in Kakariko, then the auras would have driven her to the brink of insanity if not worse.

"Dreams have a way of telling us the future, even if it is a puzzle that doesn't make any sense," Kaya said softly, running her fingers through Zelda's hair. "Those dreams may not be pleasant and you may not like them, but you mustn't allow them to scare you. You'll find that you can block them with ease so that the nights won't be as dreadful."

Zelda lifted her head up from her knees, her eyes looking up at her mother questionably. Kaya smiled at the girl, her face softening and caring as much as she showed the child. Despite feeling the most relaxed when she was with Zelda, she still was on edge as if she expected something to happen at any moment. Her guard could not be let down for a moment, not even when she was with her own flesh and blood; when she was out of Hyrule and out of danger, then she would be safe. Zelda would join her eventually, even if it meant going against the threads of Time to do so.

"Zelda, one day you will be able to control your visions and not allow them to take over your dreams. However," Kaya paused, glancing at the archway for a moment before returning her gaze to her daughter. She had thought she had seen something move there but it was just a trick of the light, "the visions will still be there, but they won't haunt you so. You must have the courage to face them, the power to control what you see, and the wisdom to use the visions well."

"And those visions will become your greatest ally," Impa said. Kaya jumped up quickly, turning to face forward only to see the Sheikah standing several feet away from them and arms crossed lightly over her chest. The movement she had seen at the archway _had_ been the Sheikah herself, the queen taking in and letting out a deep breath. She was glad that it had not been a guard that could get past her eyes and had started to act more like a Sheikah.

"Impa, when did you..." Kaya started, her voice drifting away as she glanced down at Zelda. The princess-heir hadn't changed her demeanor since Impa had come in, her face still innocent and wondering as it had been when it had just been mother and daughter together. Impa smiled lightly, seeing the tenseness on the queen's face and taking that as a sign the woman had not want the conversation to be heard by anyone else.

"I've only just gotten to the garden and didn't hear anything but what you said about courage, power, and wisdom," Impa assured her, uncrossing her arms. "I had to get here as soon as possible, before our duties take over for the day."

Kaya stared at her, her face scrunching up in confusion; she had no idea what Impa was talking about, not even when she reached into a hidden pocket of her clothing and pulled out a piece of parchment. Something triggered her memory of what she had been absently thinking about before she and Zelda had briefly talked, a fleeting smile coming upon her lips. That smile soon faded when Zelda stood up and grasped her mother's robes, holding on tight to her as though she expected something to happen. Kaya glanced down at her daughter then at Impa, her eyes moving quickly to the entrance and then back down to Zelda. The Sheikah frowned, her eyes falling upon the princess-child quickly.

"Zelda, your mother and I have some business to discuss with each other. Maybe the cook could make you some lunch before we start your lessons," Impa said in a stern voice. Zelda looked up at her mother, who smiled and nudged her towards the archway.

"Don't worry, it won't take long," Kaya said quietly, to ease the child's mind a bit. Zelda didn't move for a moment before she let go of her mother and started for the archway; unwillingness to go was a sign that she wanted to know what the two older women would be talking about. Impa gave the girl's shoulder a squeeze when she walked by as she moved towards the platform and started to unfold the parchment she had taken out. There were few instructions on the paper and in code in case a guard happened to have his curiosity get the better of him.

"When are we going to do it?" Kaya asked more than eagerly when Impa motioned for her to sit down where she had been sitting before. Both women sat down on the platform in the same manner that Zelda and Kaya had been in before they had been interrupted. Impa gave her a sideways glance and a short frown, not at the question but at the eagerness in which it was asked. Eagerness to do something or get it done wasn't something one should have when going about old magic and fate itself.

"Tomorrow we will tell him of the picnic during breakfast, but this is what I need you to do."

_Beyond_ Book series and all original characters © Ameera Mae Laramie

_Legend of Zelda_ games, characters, and places © Nintendo and their original creator


	9. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight:

"...and so that is what we have planned," Impa finished as she sat down onto one of the chairs that surrounded the long table in the main dining hall of the castle. From next to her, Kaya glanced quickly towards her and nervously moved a fork through the food sitting on the plate in front of her. Zelda sat on the other side of her mother, quietly eating her breakfast and attempting to look interested in what her attendant had said. Her pointed ears had pricked up at the mention of having a picnic somewhere off the castle grounds but she had lost interest seconds later, resuming her morning meal.

Impa had taken the majority of twenty minutes explaining the simple trip to the Hylia to the king who, like Kaya, barely touched the food that had been set in front of him. He had been too busy staring at the Sheikah and watching her speak, looking just as interested as Zelda did. If she messed up in anything that she told him, anything at all, then the entire trip would be in jeopardy. By the way he was looking and frowning at her, it was apparent that he didn't seem to have taken the bait for it; if he did, surely he suspected something else underlined this trip. They suspected he knew something else would come out of this no matter how small and Impa had to choose her words carefully to him if she wanted this to happen.

Kaya had remained silent the entire time, her eyes often moving up to the guards that were stationed at the doorway of the hall. They had their backs to the walls, spears in their hands, and taking in every word that Impa had said. These two were trained in decoding words that had little meaning to anyone else and surly the queen expected them to tell their king what was really meant in a Sheikah's words. However, if she looked at them more closely then she had, she would have seen one of them scrunch his nose up and frown slightly; even those good with decoding words would have had trouble finding the underlying meaning behind simple words of a Sheikah.

"Why are you taking my daughter into Lake Hylia besides somewhere that's closer? You can have a nice little picnic right at the fountain or in the garden," the king said, gesturing towards the grounds of the castle. "It is closer, easier, and doesn't involve trying _not _to get the Gerudo's attention. The last thing I want is another Gerudo entering the castle grounds."

He said the last words with venom, his eyes flickering over towards Kaya before moving his gaze to his guards. Both did not return the look back to the king, who frowned deeply at them before turning his eyes back to Impa. Kaya bit her lower lip, moving her eyes down to her food as she tried to force down the nervous feeling that had started the night before. She had expected him to jump at the opportunity to get Zelda and herself out of the castle despite the threat he had made days earlier but it was harder to do then what Impa had explained the night before. Despite all the short comings that he had, the king of Hyrule wasn't all that stupid and could see through a lie for the most part.

"It is a good way to show the princess what her kingdom looks like beyond the castle walls. She will be learning how to rule it in a matter of years and what good does it do if she doesn't know where things are?" Impa offered, a light smile lighting her face up to show that she genuinely cared. Deep inside, though, she wished she had other things to do then to try and persuade this man into a simple trip. "Why shouldn't she be able to get a head start in knowing what each part of Hyrule looks like? Granted she could be a little older when she ventures elsewhere, but we will be in the safety of the Hylia."

"You have a point there, Sheikah, but Zelda has another year before she has to learn what parts of this land she has to know." Lifting his goblet to his lips, he took a drink before sitting it down onto the table. "She is too young to venture out of the protection of the castle, and I don't want the brat to be harmed in any way. If she gets hurt in any way while out in the open, then that means fewer suitors for her."

Kaya had to forcibly hold herself to her seat and keeping herself from throwing the fork she held in her hand at him. If she hadn't needed to stay calm in order for this to go through and had a chance to get away from the castle, then she would have done something right then. She couldn't _stand_ him much longer and the life she led; if Impa had sensed this about her while sitting there, she made no indication of knowing. Zelda, on the other hand, reached underneath the table and patted her mother's leg before withdrawing her hand back to her lap. Kaya looked over at her daughter and smiled at her, her head turning back to her plate in a vain attempt to look calm and peaceful.

"Then why not start now even if she is too young? You said it yourself that anyone of royal blood should know his or her kingdom before they reach the age of nine." Impa gestured towards the princess-heir with a hand. "Zelda is five now and kids half her age already know Hyrule better than she does. Even if it's to the Hylia, she will at least see what the Field looks like and the lake."

"She has four years to learn, and I am not interested in what common folks children know since that is not _my_ concern." The king hardly looked interested in continuing the conversation, as he began to eat the food that had long since gotten cold. Impa, however, had always been a persistent person and would not stop until she got what she wanted.

"Very well, then. If your child grows up to be incompetent, then all the blame falls onto _you_. If she doesn't know her own kingdom, she cannot rule properly and you would have to have another heir." Impa pushed the chair back and rose, her eyes glaring towards him. Her intent was to make the king angry enough to see his stupidity but quietly allow him to agree.

"What did you say?!" The king choked on the food he had been eating, grabbing the goblet to help him swallow it down. Impa leaned onto the table and looked directly into his eyes once he was able to breath a bit better and could glare up at her.

"Your child must know at least something about her kingdom if she is to rule properly here or elsewhere," Impa said slowly and cautiously. "It may not sit well with a suitor if she doesn't even know the first thing about her _own kingdom._ Just remember it is not too early to start her training."

Kaya had to force down a smile and a laugh in order for her to maintain the same tranquility as her daughter, who also tried to hide a smile. They both knew that Impa did not mean the words that she had said and would be the last person in all of Hyrule to give the princess-heir a verbal lashing. It had been said to merely give the king another thought to the plans that had been laid in front of him and to give him more reason to allow Zelda out of the castle. The more that she was away from him, the better off she would be.

The king looked at each woman separately as though he was trying to take in their expressions, the anger that Impa had wanted to bring to a soft simmer already showing on his face. She had done well to get him to think about what his daughter would learn from this small experience; if she could get the child out of the castle even for a moment, it would give her a sense of freedom that she hadn't had before. There was a world outside the castle and Zelda _had_ to know that it existed. If she couldn't, there were other ways that she could sneak the child, and her mother, out of the castle without others taking notice. And the king had never once expressed any intimate relations he wanted with Kaya, not after she had become pregnant with Zelda. As long as there was at least one heir to the throne he would be satisfied; it wasn't like he didn't have any mistress's to share his bed with.

"Very well, then. You and Zelda can go to Lake Hylia for this _picnic_," he said after a few minutes of silence, waving a hand in defeat. "I expect her to know what the lake looks like and some of the deposits that may drop into it." He glared towards his daughter. "It's a learning experience, use it well. Don't expect it to come often, either."

"I also specified that Kaya go along with us," Impa said calmly when she sat back down into her chair. The king's hand froze by his goblet, his eyes drifting over towards Impa as though he was silently threatening her. After all, she _had_ told him that she wanted the queen to come along but not _why._

"Why do you need _her_ to go along for?" He asked quietly, his calmness unnerving Impa. The Sheikah just as quietly returned the look given to her, Kaya holding back everything that she wanted to say and do to him for the past hour. The whole point of her going to the Hylia was for her to learn more about the pendant and to see how it was used if Impa could show her. "There is no reason why she should be going as well."

"She does need to get out the castle and it would be good for the two of them to spend some time together." Impa quickly glanced towards Kaya then back to the king. "She has already done her duties for the week and she hasn't seen the Hylia in a number of years."

"And you will be with her the entire time?" He asked, staring straight at Kaya and not moving his gaze from her. She felt uncomfortable under his stare, shifting slightly in her chair. The threats of sending guards after her if she so much even stepped foot out of the castle still was fresh in her mind and she wouldn't soon forget it. Once she learned the secret of the pendant, no guards from the castle could find her unless they could use one as well.

"Yes, she will. Zelda and I both," Impa said, nodding twice. A voice deep within her mind told her otherwise, but she choose to ignore it so that she could concentrate instead on getting Kaya out of the castle. There need be no other explanation that the king needed and she would be more than willing to return Kaya back to the castle once they returned.

"As long as _someone_ is with her, you, Zelda, _and_ Kaya may go to the lake. However," He paused for a moment then continued, "several guards will have to accompany you as well to the lake. After all, there is no knowing what is out in the Field now-a-days"

"Thank you, Your Highness. I will be more then capable of protecting the queen and princess once we reach the Hylia," Impa told him just as softly. Kaya felt some of the color drain from her face as her heart started to pound in her chest when she heard the word _guards_ echo through the room. Impa had expected guards to come with them to the Hylia and she hoped that they would stay as far away as possible from the lake when the three of them went inside.

"Once you reach Lake Hylia, they will not bother you. They will stand watch at the entrance instead so that they can monitor who comes and goes from the lake grounds," he said, his voice rising several degrees above from the last he spoke. The queen breathed a half sigh of relief in that; even if her husband was not as caring to her privately as he was publicly, he did not break the promises he kept. Most of the promises, anyways.

"It is a deal, then. We will go as soon as possible." With that, Impa stood up once again and bowed her head as a small sign of respect. She then beckoned for Kaya and Zelda to do the same before they would follow her so that they could get ready for the day. Before either one could stand up, the king held a hand, ordering them silently to stay where they are and could do anything else.

"Where do you think you are going?" He asked, blinking his eyes at them as though he had no idea as to what they were doing.

"To get ready for the picnic. You said that..." Kaya started before she was cut off.

"I'll set the day and time for when you can go," he snapped at her before turning to Impa. "You are not done either. I need to know if there is anything else that you require, minus the lunch basket."

"Two horses, just two. One for myself and Zelda and another for the queen, as Zelda is small enough to ride with me. The guards can either ride horseback or walk the entire time, as it doesn't matter the least to me." Impa held her breath after that, feeling the same annoyance that Kaya was feeling but to a lesser degree. There would be no more than a couple of days of delay, not if she could help it.

"Is that it?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. When Impa nodded, he stood up, took in a deep breath, then smirked at them. "I'll tell you the time when you will be able to go. After all, I do need _some_ say in this."

He pushed the chair he had been sitting in back, moving away from the table and towards the large doors of the dining hall. As he went, he did not notice two glares stabbing him in the back as the guards stationed at the door opened it for him and allowed him to exit. He had done what they wanted him to do, to allow them a certain freedom outside the walls of the castle even if it was for a certain amount of time. It was just enough to allow for an explanation of something that went beyond what they knew about the World they lived in.

Kaya let out her own breath, leaning back into her chair as Impa continued to watch the doorway long after the king had left. She could relax for the time being, until they went on their way to the Hylia and out of the reach of the king. Even with the guards present in the room and on the picnic, they posed little threat to the three inside the room. Kaya had little doubt they would be bothered so far away from the castle and could always blame a Gerudo attack if the guards somehow managed to have bruises or somehow become unconscious during their picnic. The only thing that worried her was that it would be too late for them to go when the king allowed them to go.

"It seems like we have done it," Impa said hoarsely, gripping the back of a chair as though she needed to steady herself. "I didn't think he'd allow it to happen."

"He would have eventually, even if you kept asking," Kaya said, looking up at the Sheikah. Impa nodded, pushing herself away from the chair and started to move away from the table.

"There is too much to prepare for, Kaya. I suggest you and Zelda do anything the king says until we go on the picnic and that means holding your tongue." She gave the queen a hard look as she walked quickly towards the doorway that the servants used to come and go into the dining hall. Kaya opened her mouth to say something but closed it once Impa had left the room, turning her gaze instead to Zelda. The child had remained quiet the entire time, having finished her breakfast and was now sitting quietly and waiting to be excused. She smiled at her daughter and laughed inward; she could hold her words back for the child, despite meaning every last word she breathed.

It would be worth it in the end, she had hoped. More worth then staying in this living hell.

XXXX

The days had grown longer and the nights shorter; spring would eventually end and summer would soon bring light rains from the west and hot winds from the north. It would be a time of change, where the old ways would come back as ghosts of the past. All the creatures in Hyrule could sense this change and they did not like it; if there was anything they could do to stop it, they would. Like those within the Hylian race, they knew that if they disrupted the flow of Time and Fate then that would cause disaster greater than one could imagine.

The same changes could be seen, not felt, in the Valley near the Hylia. If one excluded the tense atmosphere of the Fortress, that is. Even the low-ranking Gerudo, who knew _nothing_ of their leader's plans, were more on edge then they had in previous weeks. They _knew_ something was going on by the way Ganondorf stalked around the hallways and barked out orders but they didn't know _what_. It was better to get out of his way and remain silent than it was to ask questions and possibly be killed over it. They valued their lives more than they did answers and kept to the shadows whenever the male Gerudo stormed by.

And Callon knew this the most, for she had asked one question too many and had been on the receiving end of her adoptive son's anger. She hadn't come close to feeling like her life had been in danger, not even when Ganondorf's fist came within a half of an inch from her head when she had asked him about his breakfast that morning. The anger on his face told her that she had pushed him too far and she wouldn't get away with it, despite being his adoptive mother. There had been no apologizes given by both, just cold, dark stares and calm, blank expressions. He had withdrawn his closed fist from the wall Callon had pressed her back against and stalked away, leaving her and a rather large hole in the wall behind.

She hadn't been the least bit afraid and refused to be escorted back to her room by three upper-ranked Gerudo who had witnessed the exchange. Callon had walked away just like Ganondorf had, with her head held up high but her eyes lowered to the ground. She didn't know exactly where she would head to in the Fortress grounds, avoiding curious stares and stupid questions. Unlike Ganondorf, she didn't respond with anger or power but rather with a quiet silence. There was no need to answer anyone when there was no need to and she was not in any mood to talk to anyone inside the Fortress.

She had always carried herself high after being threatened by another being, regardless of who it was or if she had deserved it. In her younger days, she had found herself in worse situations then the one she had been in only a few minutes earlier and those times were more dreadful. Even then she had not felt her life was in danger nor had the fear of death or worse; it was the mere _thrill_ of the experience that kept her going for more. Some would have said she was reckless and stupid even for a Gerudo thief and she knew they were right; she _had_ been reckless. As the years came and went, she found herself able to cool her lust for adventure and eventually settle down into the role of adoptive mother for Ganondorf.

Why and how she had taken up the role of adoptive mother was only a mystery those that actually knew better, when Ganondorf knew very well who his mothers were. He had learned his magic from them and more and at a very young age; it was customary to learn the skills of the parents. But, if Ganondorf knew and his mothers were still alive, then why _had_ Callon raised him like he was her own flesh and blood? Callon knew that the ones that had borne Ganondorf had their reasons for allowing another person to raise their offspring in the clan when they couldn't do it. Oh the two women had other children besides the Gerudo male and could very easily still reproduce at their age but they couldn't risk their lives on Ganondorf's. They had debts to pay to other Gerudo fractions in other lands and if those clans knew that the women had a male heir then there was a chance they would come after them.

That was one reason out of hundreds that they had Callon take the mantle of mother to Ganondorf, to lure others in believing a simple thief had given birth to him. If their son hadn't any ties to them, then the two woman could just as easily kill him when they had no more use for him than they could if they had raised him themselves. Even with that thought, they still were afraid of what Ganondorf would do to him if he became more powerful than the two women combined and more.

Callon soon found herself standing in front of the large gates that were the entrance to the Haunted Wasteland, her thoughts drifting back from the past into the present. Gesturing to the woman in the tower, she watched as one of the gates started to open enough so that she could pass through easily and without anyone else taking note that she was leaving the safety of the Fortress grounds. In the Wasteland she would make a quick detour to the graveyard of the Gerudo where the majority of the high-ranking Gerudo and the leaders of the past were buried. After paying her respects to the dead and adding a green rupee to the statue in the center of the graveyard, she would then head to the Temple in the desert where she could get advice from the old crones that lived there.

"Don't get lost, Callon. We've lost four already to the winds and sands," the Gerudo guard standing next to the gate said, smirking at Callon. In return, Callon stared at her as though she was nothing more than a babe newly weaned and went forth into the Wasteland beyond the borders of the Fortress compound. She wouldn't get lost, the Wasteland was her second home to the Fortress. That had been the place where she had been tested as a young thief and left there to fend for herself. The shifting winds that brought sand up from the ground, the bleakness of the Wasteland, and the low vision had made it nearly impossible to navigate through it without a Poe guide. She had to do it alone and without the dead ghost to aid her and she had done it where others had failed. Even though she had been starving, bloodied from the stinging sand, and considerably paler, she had proved she could survive even in the harshest conditions.

Although that practice had long since been abandoned, it had given her more knowledge about the Waste then it did anyone else. And, as the gate closed behind her, she would use that to navigate her way back to the same spot where she had been born.

_Beyond_ Book series and all original characters © Ameera Mae Laramie

_Legend of Zelda_ games, characters, and places © Nintendo and their original creator


	10. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine:

Five horses rode the last stretch towards Lake Hylia, the morning sun just rising above the tree tops and large hills to the east. They had journeyed from the castle in the wee hours of the morning when the Market still held the silence of pre-dawn hours and the shops that stayed open during the night still had customers inside of them. From the king's reasoning, it would be safer if those upon the horses left early in the morning to avoid any questioning stares from the common folk but it just gave them more daylight hours to use at the lake front. They would return late at night in order to avoid any roaming eyes that may have looked at the small group with more interest then was necessary. The more the better, Impa had said when they had left the Market square.

One horse was pure white and held two riders - Princess Zelda and her attendant Impa; a light brown mare that trotted with her head held up high, her rider Queen Kaya; the other three horses were plain dark brown horses with three soldiers from the Royal Army. Zelda had fallen asleep on the horse and had leaned back onto Impa's chest, quietly resting until she was woken by the loud hooting of an owl. Kaya maintained her sight on the land ahead of her, her gaze moving only twice when they passed Lon Lon Ranch on their right and then again when they trotted by the entranceway to Kokiri Forest on their left. It was a nervous gesture that only gave off a small hint of what she really felt and the excitement of finding out about the powers of the pendant.

The guards, one riding next to Kaya and the other two behind Impa and Zelda, stole quick glances to each other; they had their own orders to stay outside the Hylia and under no circumstances enter it unless there was a reason to. That order from the king had been reinforced by Impa not even a moment after the five horses had left the Market; she had given them a most dire warning that they would not interfere with the picnic or else their charred remains would be found by surprised Zora. Had she not shown the guards what she could to by way of igniting a helpless tree on fire then extinguishing it by merely saying a few Sheikah words and only glanced at the now burned tree, they would not have believed her.

It had been several days since Impa had proposed the idea of a lakeside picnic and it had taken every ounce of strength to keep Kaya from demanding to leave any hour of the day or night. She had expected to have left the same day that Impa had offered the idea to the king and had been more than prepared to leave the castle grounds an hour after breakfast at the least. The king had postponed it for at least three days afterwards, ignoring the questioning looks that the queen was giving him and the questions about the picnic from Zelda. It was as though he had purposely forgotten about it and was going about his normal duties as though he had never even heard of the idea before.

On the third night, Impa had cornered him in his study and _threatened_ him with some of her Sheikan magic. However that had worked in her favor, Kaya could be sure that it worked just right and had to laugh at the thought of seeing her husband freeze up at the threats of using the ancient Sheikah art of dark magic. Even the king of Hyrule would bow down to a Sheikah's feet if one so much as threatened him with that same magic. From the account she had been given from Impa herself, the king had started to stammer when Impa had shown him what she could do but not to the same extent that she had shown the guards accompanying them to the lake. That had given him more reason to let them go and had a deeper respect for the Sheikah race once the attendant had stalked out of the room, or at least presumed to have a deeper respect.

It had taken two more days of waiting for the picnic to have a date for the sixth day of waiting and Kaya had finally breathed a sigh of relief. The five days had been agonizing for her to wait and her curiosity had gotten the best of her; had she not been given death glares by Impa, she would have gone to her husband herself and demanded they go at once. She had grown more than tired of the king's pestering about duties to the castle and the Royal Family, the safety of the _only_ heir to the throne, and the nagging of how she should be doing more work around the castle. It took all of her will to stay quiet during those times, praying to whatever Goddess would listen that she would have the strength not to do anything rash.

On the fifth day he had finally relented during lunch when Impa had come into the dining hall to tell Zelda she not had finished her studies for the day. She had a look of slight anger on her face when she approached the table and opened her mouth to speak. Had she told him the real reason she was there, the king would not have flustered up and stammered out the time and date in which they could go to the Hylia. It was only a few minutes afterwards that he finished his meal and quickly stormed out of the dining hall with three curious looks at his retreating back and Kaya nearly choking on a piece of lettuce from laughing so hard. To Kaya and Zelda, she gave the reason why she was there which only prompted Kaya to excuse herself so that she would not look like she was laughing at her husband's misfortune.

"Why are we going to Lake Hylia, mother?" Zelda asked innocently enough as she sat on the white horse that she and Impa rode along the path towards the Hylia.

"We are going to have a picnic and spend the day there. Besides, it will give you some time outside the castle and away from anything that has to do with Royalty," Kaya answered, looking over towards her daughter with a light smile on her lips. That much was true; both she and Zelda wore light dresses that had been reserved for playtimes and every day wear that were meant to get dirty at some point. "A girl at your age should not be kept caged inside the confines of a home. The kingdom is yours once you take the throne."

"Oh, okay." Zelda looked thoughtful for a moment then frowned. "But why couldn't we just have stayed within the Market? I am sure that there are a lot of things that we could be doing there instead of going all this way."

"Child, you would have still been within the boundaries of the castle and that's not what we wanted," Impa replied before the queen even opened her mouth. "Besides, I do not think that the common folk would really allow you to enjoy your freedom nor would the guards. There is no telling what would happen if we stayed in the Market."

The princess-heir seemed to accept this explanation, going quiet. They rode in silence once again, the only sounds coming from the natural habitat around them and from the horses. Every so often there was a buzzing sound, Impa going stiff when she looked around them and found nothing to be out of place. The only real dangers of the open Field were the Gerudo since they had the tendency to hide among the trees to ambush caravans from outside Hyrule or the carts from Lon Lon Ranch and the blades of the persistent Peahat that would angrily chase its victim if one woke it. Neither danger seemed to be present at the moment, despite the wobbling of what looked like a bolder to the left of the small group. They went past the awakened Peahat without the large, odd creature coming out of the ground and flying towards them, perhaps because they sensed the presence of a Sheikah traveling along the road.

"You and Impa do not have to cover up anything," Zelda said suddenly, looking up towards Impa then towards her mother. If either of the three guards had looked in Kaya's direction, they would have seen her face suddenly go ridged and her hands frozen on the reins of her horse.

"What makes you think that we are covering up something?" The queen asked, giving her daughter a hard look that told the child to be quiet. Zelda stared back at her, a wondering look on her face that masked the acceptance of the look she had received. Despite her age, she knew that her words had been out of line and that any answer she would have gotten would have reached her father's ears.

"I don't know." She shrugged. "Lake Hylia seems so far from the castle and it is taking a long time to get there."

"You need to see your kingdom, young one. You will eventually need to know where Lon Lon Ranch sits, where the Kokiri Forest is, and where Gerudo Valley begins," Impa pointed out, moving the reins of the horse slightly. The creature trotted further ahead some, letting out a small snort as it did. "There are a lot of things that you need to know about the land that you live in and your father will make sure that you do."

"What about Gerudo Valley? I need to see that one day." Had the question been about Kokiri Forest, the answer would have been different but still the same in a sense. Both Kaya and Impa tensed up, their eyes meeting for a brief moment before the queen turned her gaze back forwards.

"No you don't, Zelda. You must _never_ go into that place," Kaya said quickly, shuddering at the thought of seeing Ganondorf's face flash through her mind. The meeting between the Gerudo leader and the king had given proof enough that they were just as greedy as the stories she had been told of them as a child.

"Why not?" This time, the princess looked confused. "Isn't the Valley part of Hyrule?"

"It is but is out of the boundaries of the Royal Family's rule," Kaya explained. "The Gerudo have their own methods of keeping order and peace within their own clan in the desert. Besides, it is not safe for a princess nor do we have any business going into there."

"How long have the Gerudo been here?" That was a question that took a few minutes to come up with an answer. Neither Kaya nor Impa could give them a definite answer, since they did not know themselves and could not answer properly. Inside the library in the castle and perhaps even in the commoners branch along the back alley, there was an answer there.

"For several generations, I believe. I cannot be sure myself," Impa answered after another moment of thoughtful silence. "They were there even before your father and your grandfather became king."

"Oh." Zelda frowned, sighing. The round of questioning she gave to the two women had given her the entertainment she wanted since she had been rudely awoken by the owl and now she was beginning to look bored. "When will we going to be at the lake?"

"We are there," the queen said, pointing straight forwards. There looming in front of them for about thirty feet, stood a gate high enough to keep people from entering yet short enough so that any horse could possibly jump over it. The path leading to the Hylia looked long and tiresome, wide enough so that two horses could go down it side-by-side without any trouble. The smell of the lake faintly drifted up to them, the light breeze from the wandering up towards them.

The two guards that were behind the women broke away from each other and galloped towards either side of the fence to stand guard there while the third slowly came to a halt to allow them to move towards the gate and go over it. As soon as the gate had been cleared, he would stand guard in front of the gate so that no one would enter without the three guards taking notice. The shaft underneath the lake's surface lead into Zora's Domain and did not need to be watched over, if either of the guards knew about it themselves. They had their orders from the king and would not disobey them, or suffer the wraith of a very angry Sheikah.

"Alright!" Zelda's face suddenly brightened at the aspect of finally reaching their destination and losing the guards when they entered the lake grounds.

"Let's put the horses at the gate then we can climb over," the Sheikah offered, ready to slow down her horse when Kaya put a hand up to stop her. The guards already had their duties to do and they did not need to be watching a pair of horses as well.

"We are too close to the Valley even if there is a chance that the Gerudo won't come this way," she told her, putting her hand back onto the reins and jerking her head over towards the path that went towards the Valley. "It is bad enough that they steal other things but horses are a different matter. We need to jump over it just in case. It is safer for them and for us." Impa looked like she had something to say about that but the queen countered before she could be overridden. "The guards can't stop a band of thieves _and_ watch the horses as well, despite being outnumbered."

"As you wish," Impa said with a light shrug, as she ordered the horse to gallop towards the gate at a fast rate. Taking the horses into the lake grounds gave her the opportunity to keep everything still hidden within the saddlebags they carried and not arousing the suspicions of the already suspicious guards. The food they carried inside Kaya's own saddlebags would be fine when the steed jumped the fence and nothing would be lost when it landed back onto the ground once again.

This was the place where she would test the strength of the horse and the hands of fate, the ground beneath her becoming further away as the creature moved from the ground and into the air. It rested easily on the other side of the gate, Zelda holding tight to her attendant but smiling the entire time. The creature moved out of the way to allow Kaya's own horse to jump over the fence, the hoof beats clamoring onto the ground behind Impa signaling that the other had successfully cleared the gate. There was no reason for either to look behind them to make sure that everything was alright; they had a day to themselves and a lot of explaining would be done with no ears to take information back to the king.

The wind would be silent this day.

XXXX

While the two horses carrying the queen and princess-heir had entered the grounds of Lake Hylia, a small band of Gerudo emerged from the entrance way to the Valley and moved with a deadly force. The morning had already grown late to them and the day seemed to have been wasted in preparations just for the few hours that would be for the journey ahead of them. These thieves were riding their reddish colored horses that they had gotten from some other land to the south, leaving the rest of their clan standing guard at their home and awaiting for the others to return with news from the castle. There would be little shared with the other sisters considering the main objective only concerned the ones inside this small band. It could not be considered a raiding party for gold or jewels but rather information.

Nabooru and Callon were apart from the band that served as guards and assassins, in case anyone got in their way or put their noses into their business. They had pasted smiles on their lips and stayed up front of the band, hardly even taking notice the looks of their fellow thieves. Ganondorf lead the group on the black stallion that he had captured from a neighboring country two kingdoms to the north, sitting tall in the saddle as he lead the group towards Hyrule Castle. Only he, Callon, and Nabooru knew the true reason they were taking this journey and nether spoke about the reasons behind it. The rest of the thieves would go around the Market getting information about the Temple and report back to Callon if they found anything of value.

Callon had returned from the Wasteland the day after she had entered it, spending the entire night inside the shifting sands and winds that would have killed anyone else that dared to stay even an hour inside of it. That had been what she had claimed to have done but in reality she had spent a good portion of the day elsewhere, inside the Colossus and getting her own information from the two crones that lived inside the Temple. It was just basic guesswork from the answers the two had given her, their own questions given riddles as answers just like they had given her. There had been no harm in asking about Ganondorf's birth or the future of the Gerudo, since she had been given vague answers when the young babe had been entrusted in her arms so many years ago. They wouldn't go to Ganondorf about the meeting between the three old women, not if they valued their lives. There were only two people in the entire clan that the crones were afraid of and Callon was one of them.

Nabooru had returned from a raid the night before, her face showing the wear of the journey. A few hours of sleep and a quick meal had been the only things she was given before journeying out into the wide Field. From what she had heard, Ganondorf had wanted her to see the Marketplace and to stand guard outside the gate to the castle so that no one left or entered the castle grounds. She had made no objections about standing guard at the castle and frowned at seeing the Market; she had seen several before and knew that all were the same. Merchants sold things and people bought them - if one went to a single Market, they had gone to all. Besides being forced into this party, she felt irritable from the lack of sleep and little food she had received. If she hadn't been in the presence of Callon and Ganondorf, she would have turned around and gone back to the Fortress without hesitation.

"There is no need to go back to the castle with all of us with you," Callon said as she moved her horse up next to him. This gave them slightly more privacy from wandering ears, despite the trust she placed into Nabooru. Ganondorf did not look over at her as he continued to stare straight ahead, his face blank and unmoving. "This is your destiny that I am talking about. Your choice in your life and the way of the clan. You do not need to bring all of us into it if we have no part in the fate."

If her words confused herself, they would have most certainly confused Ganondorf even though he did not show that confusion. Callon bit her lower lip, mentally scolding herself for saying such a thing to him. When she had left the Temple a few days before, one of the crones had told her that the man that lead the Gerudo would have a hand in the fate of Hyrule in the years to come and to expect something grand. Whether or not it was true or what kind of fate it was, she had believed something would begin as soon as she stepped out of the Colossus.

And she had been right; as soon as she took not even three steps out, a crow had swooped down and clawed her on the head before flying off. There had been only a bit of blood coming from the wound and her hair had covered it so that none in the clan would ask questions about it. The crow hadn't gotten far before it fell out of the sky, dead and unmoving. When Callon had gotten to the bird, she saw deep red hair strands in its claws; the blood from the attack hadn't been enough to stain much of her hair and whitish-gray hair had long since taken the red away from her hair. That had scared her to the point where she left the dead creature where it was and took off for the Wasteland; signs like that didn't bode well for the future.

"There are certain things that need to be done in a certain manner. This is one of them," he growled at her without even taking a glance over towards her. "After all, it would look rather _suspicious_ to see a lone Gerudo enter the township."

"And a small band of them, Ganondorf?" She gestured to the Gerudo behind her. "Would that not raise the Hylian's guard even more? We already know that we are not welcome there."

"It may be so but then that is what I want. I want people to focus their attention on _you_ and not _me_." The sound of his voice had risen to a point where Callon feared that he would do something rash to either herself or the women riding behind them. Stealing a glance at Nabooru, she scanned the faces of the women that had come with them. Just from their expressions alone she could tell that they, like herself and the younger Gerudo, had been forced into this when Ganondorf announced he had plans on going to the castle again.

"Why is that, son?" She asked when she turned her gaze back forwards. "No matter what, there will always be that lone Hylian that notices everything."

"It can be done, it _has_ to be done. The only people I really want to take notice of me are that Sheikah and the good for nothing king. That is all, no more." His voice had become almost maniac, like he was starting to go crazy with lust of power. Had she not seen this happen to others before him, she would have turned around herself and taken the rest of the small band with her. There was no sense in keeping innocent, or near innocent, lives close to a nearly insane being. "Once I am able to get what I want from them, then I can leave and it won't matter who sees me at that point."

"Very well, then. Do what you wanted to do. It is none of my concern any longer," Callon muttered back to him, making her horse drop back to her original position next to Nabooru. In truth, she _did_ care and would do so until the day she died, but she could no longer take concern on what he did. If he didn't stop pushing himself to get things that were out of reach even for the fabled leaders of the past, Ganondorf would find himself in more trouble than he could himself out of.

'What was that all about?" She asked in a low tone so that Ganondorf or the other Gerudo present would not hear their conversation. It would be short, just enough to give her an idea as to what had been said between the two.

"Ganondorf is becoming more irrational by the moment and has become more stubborn than usual. He cannot learn what it means to back off on certain things." Callon also kept her voice low, taking a pause to glance up at Ganondorf as they entered Hyrule Field itself. "This pendant is out of his reach and out of his control. There is no reason as to why he should be back at the castle so soon."

Nabooru stared at the back of Ganondorf, shaking her head and sighing. Had she not known the same things that Callon had just said, she would have continued the conversation until they reached the outskirts of the castle-town. Until then, she would take a short vow of silence and concentrate on taking a few moments during the journey to the castle to catch up on her sleep. There was no need to force herself to stay awake when there were others that could protect them even better then she could.

No one in the band took notice that there were three Royal Guards standing at the entrance of Lake Hylia.

_Beyond_ Book series and all original characters © Ameera Mae Laramie

_Legend of Zelda_ games, characters, and places © Nintendo and their original creator


	11. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten:

The lake hadn't changed much since the last time Kaya had been there, save for minor changes that the Zora had made to the waterfront and to the outlaying lake defenses. Of course it had been a number of years since she had been to the Hylia and her memory hadn't been a pleasant one if that much of it. Still, she relished the freedom of the outdoors and was more than glad to leave the confines of the castle behind her. Nothing would get in from the entrance to the lake, not with the guards stationed there with their ever watchful eye. The deposit from the Valley wasn't much worry to her either; no Gerudo, as far as they knew, had any inkling that two of the Royal Family were even at the lake. And the long tunnel from the Domain to the lake was protected by the Zora and nothing would come or go without their knowledge.

Kaya and Impa had settled on the slope that went down to the lakeside, their horses behind them and their picnic lay out in front of them. They sat on a wide blue sheet with the picnic basket sitting next to them, Zelda wandering to the lake to watch the fish that swam in the shallow end. Her shoes had been taken off and laid by the blanket, her curiosity of the lake as a whole getting the better of her. Neither Kaya nor Impa would let her out of their sight and the princess-heir would not stray far or go into the lake itself without either woman with her. That gave them time enough to talk about pendants and other such things that the girl did not need to know quite yet.

"I will explain now, Kaya," Impa said quietly as she shifted uncomfortably where she sat, her eyes drifting over towards Zelda for a moment. Despite being well out of earshot of the guards and Zelda, she wasn't quite comfortable sharing this information with Kaya since what she was about to learn had rarely left the inner workings of Sheikah. However, the woman _had_ to know this and the Sheikah had a duty to her to tell her; the woman had few places to go to even outside the kingdom of Hyrule. There had been threats made against Kaya that were unspoken by the queen and Impa would not press her for those threats - that was enough for her to know another way out of this World far from death.

"I need to know anything and everything that you know," Kaya prompted, casually glancing towards the entrance to the Hylia before turning her gaze back upon Impa. The Sheikah moved a hand to her neck, taking the chain she wore and pulled out the bauble that rested upon the silver links; it had been a good idea to keep it on her person in case any of the guards had been given the order to search the belongings of the saddlebags. If that had been case and the bags _had_ been searched, the pendant still would have been safe and the minds of the guards and the king were deterred and no one in the township would have been any the wiser. There were ways to keep others from taking notice to things they did not need to know about.

"From the Sheikan legends that I have heard as a child, there were four pendants created several centuries ago by a Sheikah mage that had the power to go between dimensions and Worlds beyond that of Hyrule itself. These four pendants had been created for Sheikah use only but that soon became harder to accomplish as fewer and fewer Sheikah roamed the lands," Impa began slowly. "The creator of the pendants had a power that some would say rivaled that of the three Goddesses that created this land. He had the knowledge of a thousand beings, or so the legend says. He could easily get into anything and go anywhere he choose to by the way of a magic that was known at the time. But he wanted to have an easier way of doing it then the way that was done during those ages."

"Then he created these pendants?" The queen asked. Impa smiled and nodded. "How did he do it?"

"The mystery of it has been twisted so many ways that not even the Sheikah know the full truth of it. It is said that he found a way to open a portal into the dimensions between these Worlds and had harnessed it inside these pendants. They say that he had to use some of his life force to create these pendants and aged a few decades in the process, thus giving into the suspicion that one has to use part of their life in order to use the pendant." Impa shrugged. "That is just hearsay, even for a Sheikah. I have little proof of this, outside the legends and the usage of the pendant. What happened to the mage after he created and used the pendants, I don't know. He may have died in Hyrule or he could have died elsewhere."

"Where are the other pendants?" Kaya asked. It was a reasonable question to her, considering if there were three others just like the one Impa had that someone else could use it to come after her. The question seemed to bother Impa and she didn't look very much willing to tell the queen about the locations of the remaining three.

"I know two of the other locations of the three remaining ones: one resides in Zora's Domain and is in the hands of the Zora ruler while the other one is in the hands of another Sheikah in another World. The fourth and last one I do not know where it is at, as its location has been lost to the Sheikah." Kaya was about to open her mouth but Impa raised a hand to stop her. "Do not worry about the other pendants, Kaya. The Zora king may have an alliance with your husband, but there are certain things that remain a secret from him. He will not give the pendant up to anyone but me when I personally come for it. For the Sheikah who has the other known pendant, she is very well trusted with it, and I know she has it. The last one is nothing to worry about, even if it were there are safe guards with it."

Kaya seemed to take this in; for she closed her mouth on the subject and looked like she accepted it rather unwillingly even if she had been reassured no one would find one of the pendants and come after her. Had she known that there were other pendants that were made then the one Impa wore, she would have demanded a search for them so that she could have them in her sole possession. Despite what Impa had told her, she still felt uneasy about having other pendants that anyone could use for their own purposes and to find her. _If_ they could find her and _when_; there were ways to break a Sheikah and the king would most likely know how to do it to make Impa talk.

"While these pendants are one of the more valuable things in Hyrule, there is no one outside the Sheikah and who is alive that knows how they work. Save for yourself and the Zora king, that is." Impa had to add that last part in despite the fears that she could see rising on Kaya's face. In reality, the Zora king only knew it as a Sheikah artifact and had been entrusted to keep it safe until the time that Impa needed to get it back from him. "Like the Hylian legends of the Triforce and the Master Sword, it can be wielded only by certain people."

"Like who?" Kaya glanced over to Zelda, who had seen a crab and was following it along the water's edge.

"Like I said before, it had been created for Sheikah use but from what I can make out of the legends it had been created with the mindset that the Sheikah may not always be there to use them. While it is a Sheikah artifact, any walk of life can use it and wield it. However, like the Master Sword it cannot be used by those that are purely evil but even this has some way of getting around that." That was an uncomfortable thought to think of and even more horrible to say, that something Sheikan made could be used by evil. Impa shuddered at a passing thought before continuing. "If a person with a pure heart and soul is possessed by an evil spirit or someone with a little bit of evil in them, the pendant can still be used and wielded. The hard part in determining who does and doesn't have any evil in them but it is the ones that wish not to do any evil intent that allows the pendant to choose what to do more quickly." Impa waved a hand to dismiss any thoughts Kaya wanted to say. "It's an impossible thing to really explain, even if I compared it to the Master Sword."

"If you say so," She muttered, looking doubtful. "About the one that created the pendants, this Sheikah mage. Did he come from Kakariko?"

"At that time, Kakariko never existed. Sheikah lived all over Hyrule and many other places in this World and others, if my memory serves me correctly. Eventually, Sheikah began to become more and more scarce as time went on and many died during the wars that ravaged the land." There was a fleeting moment of sadness in her eyes but it left as soon as it had appeared. "This Sheikah lived in the castle along with the king at the time and had free reign over where he could and could not go. At certain points in Hyrule's history, Sheikah _were_ treated as though they were the extension of the Royal Family but that was not always the case."

"How far back do the Sheikah go?" Kaya wondered, wandering off the topic of the pendants for the moment. "I have never really understood that, even growing up in Kakariko."

"As far back as I can remember, but I believe they go back even further then when the Goddesses created this land," Impa explained, stealing her own glance over towards Zelda for a brief moment. "Sheikah have always been one of the major races of Hyrule but some say that they actually came from another World entirely. From what I think and have heard from elder Sheikah as I grew up, there are a rare few Sheikah that can be part one race, like a Hylian, and part another race, like a Human."

"Human? What's a Human?" The concept of a race that she didn't know of was foreign to her; the queen had seen very few of the races outside of her own country and had generally assumed that all lands had the same races as Hyrule.

"It is a species from one of the other Worlds. It looks somewhat like a Hylian but does not have the pointed ears that we have nor has the ability to cast strong magic. It is one of the few species that I know exists out of Hyrule and quite possibly lives in this very World." Impa didn't seem to have the confidence about that and shrugged it off, before taking the subject back on track. "They are like a half breed of sorts and they are generally weaker than full blooded Sheikah. Not all Sheikah are like this, just the rare few that have been recorded in history. They can survive in the two planes in which their parents may come from, so they could live in both realms. You understand their language since there are a few races that understands it in this very World and anyone living in Kakariko is taught at least two other languages besides our own."

"If someone were to leave this World by way of the pendant, what would happen to them?" Kaya _had_ to know this, considering the possibility she would be using the very pendant Impa had. All the effects that would happen to her would have to be told to her now or else she would die trying to use it since she wasn't Sheikah and had never used it before.

"They would die." Impa inhaled then exhaled, almost ready to try and calm the woman sitting next to her as well as herself for the impact it surely would cause. Kaya's face paled almost instantly when she heard those words, her face frozen in some sort of wide-eyed calmness. That had not been what she wanted to hear and Impa would have to explain quickly before the queen got more excited then she already was. "Not instantly mind you, as long as you get to the World you want to go to. It is like different planes in which our spirits can survive upon, actually. Take the spirit out of its original plane and it will start to die very slowly until it washes out completely. This, in turn, affects the body and the person will eventually die. However, a child of two Worlds can exist in those two Worlds their parents lived in without the fear of this happening to them because he or she has the combined spirit of those two Worlds. The blood that flows through their veins allows them to do it. That is the best explanation I can give to you."

Kaya didn't respond to that as quickly as Impa had expected her to, instead remaining quiet and stone faced. Some of the color had returned to her cheeks and it was apparent that she was deep in thought, as though she was considering the options and weighing the consequences of leaving her World behind her. At the present moment, she didn't know how long she could survive out of the World she lived in; for all she knew she had anywhere from several minutes to several months to even several years. Looking at Impa questioningly, she wanted to ask her how long she had and what would happen to her if she went to more Worlds than one. The words did not come out and instead her mouth opened and closed silently, as though her vocal cords had frozen.

Impa had expected Kaya to be angry about the fact she would eventually die if she lived outside of this World for an extended period of time, but there were other ways around it so that she could live her life as normal as she could. There were, however, consequences to this and not even the Sheikah were aware of the full effects of them; there were few Sheikah that she knew that were of two different Worlds and they knew even less then she did. She wouldn't explain to Kaya about the few that she trusted with the secrets of pendants and those few were not on the same World as they were.

"How long do I have in any other World besides this one?" Kaya asked as soon as she found the voice to speak. Her question was eerily calm, her expression just as calm as her voice was. That scared the Sheikah; not the question that had been asked but the sheer ability of the queen to stay calm. She spoke about death as though it was a normal topic over tea!

"In order for you to live your life to the normal age a Hylian usually lives to, you must come back here every ten years in order for your spirit to rejuvenate itself completely in its own plane. You must stay in this World for one complete lunar cycle of the moon before you can go back to whatever World you had gone to. You can die in any of these realms like you could any other person that may be living in there." That was not what Kaya had expected to hear for a second time and the calmness she held was starting to break free of her hold. Even though she was not as strong as the Sheikah next to her, she had her own brand of strength.

"What you are telling me is that I can only last ten years in one realm before I have to come back here so that I do not die unnaturally?" Even Kaya's voice was starting to sound strained. "And I have to stay here for one month then go back to whatever World I had come from?"

"To put it that way, yes you do," Impa said with a stiff nod. "I did not make this up so that you would get angry, Kaya. That is the way it has to be, I am not the one who made up these circumstances. I only know of this from the people who have experienced it first-hand and from the books I was given."

The queen's calmness had broken in half and now the anger that she had held back for so long was starting to show itself on her face. Her eyes stared daggers at her, the sides of her lips were starting to twitch, and her hands grasped the blanket underneath her tightly. There was nothing that Impa could do to calm the woman down if she so choose to lash out in anger, despite the young princess-heir being only a few feet away from them. She couldn't lose the last bits of calmness that she still had, not if she wanted to keep what they knew a secret between the two of them.

Kaya seemed to disregard that and the presence of the guards standing at the entrance of the Hylia, the determination to leave her World behind becoming more distant and lost with every passing moment. She had hoped that she could leave no trail of her disappearance behind, not even if she had to leave her only daughter in the World that she would not be coming back to. Now that she had the option of staying in Hyrule miserably, having to come back every ten years for a month to live out the rest of her normal life, or die in ten years, she wasn't so sure she liked the idea of using the pendant. There were other ways of escaping the horrors of her World and none of them seemed to be as good as this escape she had just been presented with.

"That's just wonderful. I _knew_ something wasn't right about this idea, and I kept pushing it to the back of my mind to keep myself focused." Kaya stood up, giving Impa more of a glare then she had before. "How can I come back to this World after being away for so long in some other World? I don't even know where it takes me."

"Kaya, calm down," Impa said, trying to get the queen to sit back down so that she wouldn't alarm her daughter. Even with her not shouting, Zelda most likely would become alarmed at her mother standing up and looking more than slightly angry. "From what I can remember from what the Sheikah elders told me, all you have to do is think of what World you want to go to and then you will be able to go there. Then I suppose you would be transported there instantly, I don't know."

She had to emphasize on the 'I don't know' part, which just angered Kaya even more so. The queen fought the urge to take the pendant from around Impa's neck and throw it into the water, despite that it would do her no good to do so. If she did and the pendant washed up somewhere in the Domain or worse, she would have more than one angry Sheikah breathing down her back. As it were, she was the first Hylian in many years to know about this supposed secret and a lot of good it was doing her. In fact, had she not let her curiosity get the better of her and have the willingness to leave the World behind her, she would not have asked more about the pendant and the picnic would not have taken place.

"Say I wanted to be in what you call the 'Human' World. I don't know how long a year is there, and I am going to assume ten years means ten years by that World's standards," she started with a slight nod from Impa. "I stay in the Human World for ten years and then come back to this World for a month. What then? I can't quite possibly go back to the castle to stay there. They would think that I was back from the dead or worse."

"There are places in Hyrule that you could hide for a month," the Sheikah offered but it would have been better if she had not spoken at all. Kaya didn't seem to hear her as she continued.

"Then again, what will happen when I disappear from the Human World for that month?" She asked the question more so to herself then to Impa. "People in that realm would probably get suspicious if I left then a month later came back, reappearing like nothing had happened."

"You most likely will appear in the same spot where you came from in this World. Things may be different in this realm then the others but you will not be in any danger." Even though she said them herself, Impa didn't believe them herself and didn't expect Kaya to either.

"How do you know that?" Kaya gestured wildly around her. "There is no telling what is going to happen when the pendant is used."

"You - we - will just have to see when that time comes," Impa said forcibly, her tone telling the queen to sit down and enjoy the day planned. She had done her part in telling Kaya what she wanted to know and the day would be a waste if they went back to the castle now, along with any ideas the guards and king would have if they returned early. "There are other ways of finding these things out and we need to do this the right way before you use the pendant. It will take _time._"

"I want to go to the Human World," Kaya said with tight lips. "Now. I cannot wait."

Impa had to force herself to keep from gasping out, her head snapping up to the woman that stood there. It took all of her strength not to say something irrational, even as she stood up and stood eye-to-eye with the queen of Hyrule. Their eyes remained locked together as though they were waging a silent battle of wits and sheer power of the mind. If anyone else had come in eye contact with either woman that had the same look in her eyes, they would have cowered back and muttered apologizes before going in the other direction. Impa was, after all, a Sheikah and her presence alone would have commanded a great army to war. Kaya, as Hyrule's queen, had her determination set in stone and would not back down, even at the cost of her own life.

"You will be able to do that one day, Kaya," Impa said slowly to keep her presence as serene as the Hylia's water. That was easier said than done, considering that Kaya was thinking of using a pendant that not even most present-day Sheikah knew how to use properly. "Right now we need to form a plan before anything can be done. I don't want to jeopardize your safety or of Zelda's."

By this time, Kaya was fuming with anger and impatience as she turned her head around towards the lake where her daughter still was playing happily. She did it to keep her anger in check and from lashing out at the Sheikah, an action that she would regret sooner rather than later. She stared across the glimmering water, her eyes moving along the shoreline as she took in several deep breaths; her nerves were more then shot and she was not prepared to go back to the hell in which she had come from. As she stared out into the water, something in her mind clicked, like an idea had come to her mind. An idea that she knew she had to act on while they were at the Hylia.

"I cannot wait another day, hour, minute or second, and I am not prepared to go back to the castle. I need to get out of this World today." Kaya turned her head back towards the Sheikah, stretching out her arm and opening her palm up. "Now, give me the pendant, Impa, so that I can get out of here."

Impa stared at Kaya's outstretched hand like she had not heard what she had said, not complying with the order. She wouldn't, not unless their lives were in danger and she had no other choice but to use the pendant. Kaya had no idea what she would get herself into if she blindly used a Sheikah artifact that had been created centuries ago; the powers of the Sheikah mages of old had yet to be properly tested out. There was too much at stake even if she knew that Kaya had to leave this World behind before the essence of Time caught up with her.

"I cannot do that, Kaya. What about Zelda and the guards?" She gestured towards the entrance and to the spot where Zelda played. "Won't they be suspicious as to where you went all of a sudden?"

"I have an idea as to what I am going to do." That was a truth in a sense of what she was going to do in _this_ World; what she was going to do once she got into another World was a different matter altogether.

"If you do, you can tell me when we get to the castle," Impa said, a faint smile appearing on her lips. "Otherwise let's enjoy the rest of the day and..."

"Impa, look at the water," Kaya instructed, gesturing to the water. Impa stared at her, her left eye twitching and the smile fading from her lips. "Just look at the water, damn it."

"What am I looking for exactly?" She asked in a strained voice, moving her eyes towards the Hylia. The land surrounding the lake was left unspoiled by travelers, thieves, and others that went along the land, making this sanctuary one of Hyrule's most beautiful places. The Zora often kept the land surrounding the lake to its natural beauty and did not like others to spoil the wonder that was the Hylia. Outside of the small fishing hut and laboratory that was largely left unattended, there was no indication that it was a spoiled land void of its vast riches.

"How deep do you think the water is? Not where Zelda is, mind you," the queen added quickly, pointing to the middle of the lake. "Deeper than that, perhaps where the old tree sits in the middle of the lake if not further down."

"I don't know." Impa shrugged, not understanding what Kaya was trying to say. "Probably twenty to thirty feet, maybe more than that since the Zora has their Water Temple underneath the lake."

"I just have to think of where I want to go, and I will be transported there?" There was a smug look on Kaya's face, one that Impa failed to take notice of.

"Yes," she responded, turning her gaze back towards the other. "What exactly is your plan? And don't..."

"I will jump into the lake and swim into it, probably half way from the shore and the island with the tree. Then I will go beneath the water and think of the World that I want to be in and go there." Kaya smiled at Impa, who stared at her with a look of shock on her face.

"Kaya, I can't let you do that!" Impa hissed at her once she regained the ability to speak. "I can't let you pretend that...oh, what would Zelda think!?"

"Everyone will think that I drowned without anyone knowing what happened to me." Kaya placed her hands on her hips and frowned at the Sheikah. "How else am I going to leave here? Teleport from here in full view of the guards and worse, my own daughter who is already fragile enough as it is?"

"Kaya, think this through. Please. There _are_ other ways that you can do this," Impa pleaded, her mouth opening and closing with unsaid words. "I know you will have to leave this World behind one day but this is taking it too far!"

"My idea is the only way I can do this without hurting Zelda more then it will in any set amount of time." The set determination was back in her eyes. "I don't want to stay in this World any more then I already have. If there are other ways, I don't want to hear them."

Impa stared long and hard at the queen, her eyes going over her face numerous times. There was nothing to tell Impa that Kaya would back down from going right now even at the cost of her own life; it was a risk that she was willing to take even if others were not. _Is she _that _desperate to leave?_ She wondered to herself, biting down on her tongue in the fear she might make Kaya's determination even more powerful. That determination was set on her face, etched along the lines of worry, sadness, and hope and she wouldn't listen to any other reasonable way to get through this. Had this been before Zelda had been born, or even a mere thought, Impa would not have spoken of such things until the princess-heir had been born.

Sighing, Impa placing a hand on the bauble around her neck with a silent prayer. The way she saw it she had two choices: let Kaya go through with her plan and take a chance in the dark, or she could drag her back to the castle unwillingly and spend time trying to perfect a decent plan. She didn't like either one considering she didn't know how much time would pass before Kaya could safely go into another World by herself nor did she want to take the chance that destiny would come before it was called. It was a desperate decision to make, one that she felt pressured to make right then and there. She silently swore at Kaya for putting herself and Zelda in the path of destiny so soon, when it was still too early to tell when things would come about again.

"Fine," Impa growled at her through clenched teeth. "I am not going after you."

Kaya looked more than surprised, which masked the delight that she felt in knowing that she had won this small fight. Although she knew she would be leaving a small child behind, it was for the best as she opened her hand up once again in the offering of the pendant from Impa. The Sheikah stared at her hand for a moment, hesitating for a moment before she slowly unclasped the silver chain from around her neck. It took several minutes to allow herself to put the pendant into Kaya's outstretched hand, her hand shaking with anger and sadness. If she could at least keep the other emotions in check, she would remain strong in this despite feeling like she was being pulled in too many directions at once.

"I don't want you to come after me. I need someone to protect Zelda," Kaya said as she placed the pendant around her neck and clasped it tightly. It felt cool on her skin, the light shining in the clear bauble as she turned towards the horses that they had brought to the lake.

"Kaya, are you sure you want to do this now?" Impa asked gently. "After all, I don't know how Zelda will take this and she is too young to really understand all this. Besides, we don't know how the pendant will work."

"I am sure, Impa, that Zelda will come to understand. I've seen the aura's around her and know she will be okay. I know that I am leaving her behind but it is for the best for both of us, even if I can't come back to get her. My original intentions had been to come back for her but now I know that I can't. That is something that can't be explained, not in a sense that she could understand herself." Kaya glanced over towards Impa, giving her a small smile in the process. The Sheikah, in some form or another, understood what the queen had to say and just kept silent about it; the Sheikah had their own ways of taking prophecies and using them. "I am taking only a few things with me, and I have enough with me to last me until I settle down."

The Sheikah stood where she was, her eyes watching Kaya intently as she stood there and stared out into nothing. She did everything that she could to contain the mixed fury and sadness, her teeth clenched tightly together. There was a certain pang of pain and guilt that she felt when she watched Kaya look out towards the horses, the longing the woman had on her face as she set out to turn her life around. There was nothing that she could do to stop her, even if she continued to protest her going and using Zelda as her anchorage in this World was out of the question. _She will eventually have to leave Hyrule and make way for destiny to continue on,_ she attempted to reason with herself but to no avail. _Kaya, I know that you have to do this in order for things to go on their destined path but please think of Zelda. I cannot protect her from her father or worse, forever. Even Sheikah are mortal._

The smile faded from her lips, her eyes moving back over towards the horses that grazed not far from where they were standing. She bowed her head slightly to the Sheikah, attempting to blink back the tears before walking towards the horses in a vain attempt to walk tall. It was harder to do than expected, even as she moved to the horse that she had rode into the lake and placed a hand upon the horses head, muttering a few words to it softly. The horse grazed at the same spot that she had placed it in, hardly taking notice that its rider was standing next to it and was shaking something terrible. The light smile came back to her lips as she stole a glance to Zelda who was playing happing in the water.

"I hate to do this to you, my daughter, but it is for the best. I no longer can stay in this World that you will still call home," Kaya whispered to herself out loud, shaking her head as she opened the saddlebag her horse carried. Reaching inside, she took out two small books and a jar that contained enough rupees from the castle to last five Hylians for the rest of their lives. She then walked around to the other side of the horse and took out a bag from the other saddle bag and placed the items she had taken out from the other into that. It took her roughly ten minutes to do this, all the while being under the watchful eye of Impa.

She turned around to face the lake, a determined yet scared look on her face as she placed the bag over a shoulder and stared to walk to the water's edge. By the time she had started for the water, Impa no longer looked in the queen's direction and instead looked towards the mountain range in which Death Mountain sat upon. It was all that she could to from running after Kaya and shaking some sense into her despite knowing what it would only cause even more pain then it already was. Both knew this had to happen despite the repercussions that it would bring in the future. If only there were other ways that could go about but there weren't; not even living in another land of this World would do the justice of bringing total happiness.

"I am so sorry, Impa. This is no longer my home and it will never be again. Take care of my Zelda for me and keep her safe," Kaya whispered to herself before reaching the spot where Zelda splashed in the water. The child stopped when her mother came to the water's edge and placed a hand on the top of her head. "Hello, sweetheart."

"Mother, come to play in the water?" Zelda asked, smiling up at her mother. Kaya smiled back, nodding to her.

"Zelda, listen to me," she started, keeping the happy expression on her face as best as she could. "Don't go into the deeper water like me, okay? You aren't strong enough to swim there yet, okay? I'm just going out for a quick swim before coming back in; it's been a while since I last went swimming properly."

Zelda thought about that for a moment before her smile grew wider and she nodded excitedly in response. Kaya sighed inwardly, pulling up her dress as she started to go into the water without any hesitating. The princess did not seem to take notice that her mother's expression had changed when she had turned to the water, resuming her playful splashing and giggling at the water's edge and remained unaware of what was about to happen. Kaya didn't even look over at her daughter in fear that she would not be able to continue on as she came to her waist in water before diving deep within the depths of the water. It was cold underneath the surface of the water and she could see the outline of the Water Temple deep within the Hylia's water.

Kaya then placed a hand onto the bauble, closing her eyes as she kept her body underneath the water so that Zelda would not take notice if something did not go right. She thought of an unknown World in which she was to go in, far away from where she lived, the bauble underneath her hand beginning to glow brightly. It took less than thirty seconds for the light to engulf Kaya entirely, lighting up the water around her before it faded just as quickly as it had come. Where the light and Kaya once had been, there was nothing there but the calmness of the Hylia and the fish that had seen the entire thing take place in the orb of light. What transpired there would be known to a select few and they were not about to divulge in the secrets of a vanished queen.

Zelda stopped her playing once she realized that her mother had not come up to the surface for air, her eyes looking out along the water. Kaya had not emerged after five minutes of being underwater, a long time even for those that could hold their breath for an extended amount of time. Now Zelda had started to become scared, unsure if her mother was alright or if something had pulled her under and would not let her go. The princess-heir started to go into the water after her mother in a horrified attempt to find her despite her small body and the inability to swim properly in the deep water in front of her. Before she got even to her knees, a pair of arms picked her up and pulled her back to the shoreline where she would be safe from the same force that had taken her mother away from her. She looked up to see Impa holding her close to her and with the same horrified expression on her face as she did.

"Don't go into the water. Let me go after her and try to find her," she said as she placed the child onto the land safely. Taking in a deep breath, she made her way back into the water and made a line for the area that she had seen Kaya dive into. Diving into the depths of the water, she knew she wouldn't find anything down there but the fish and the entrance to the Temple that the Zora's called sacred. This was an act to keep Zelda from knowing the truth too soon. _I do not want to do this, not at all,_ Impa thought to herself as she continued down further. _Zelda does not deserve this despite that this has to be done._

She looked around the darkness of the Hylia as best as she could with the amount of air that she had sucked in at the surface before she started to swim to the top. Once she had broken the surface, she took in several deep breaths before going back under the surface once again. She did three more times in a vain attempt to locate Kaya; when she came up the last time, she looked around the surface of the Hylia just to make sure that Kaya was, in fact, gone from this World. It was a horrible thought to come to terms with despite knowing she had a hand in it and it was for the better of more than one world. Before she swam to the shore, she placed a confused and horrified look on her face so that Zelda would not suspect anything else.

By now Zelda had a worried look on her young face and tears were already rolling down her cheeks when the Sheikah walked past her and sat down onto the grass. She closed her eyes for a moment and caught her breath, as the child ran over to her and latched onto her arm. Impa did not look at her when she opened her eyes, instead looking up at the sky where the sun shone brightly as though nothing was happening. In the span of twenty seconds, Impa had silently cursed all three of the Goddesses more than then twice and swore hell and worse to the one that had created the pendants. It was enough to curb her anger for the time being and enough to keep her expression from twisting into something worse than it already was.

"Impa? Where is my mother? _Where is she?_" Zelda demanded, her tears streaming down her face as she tugged on Impa's wet sleeve. It took her several minutes before she could look at the girl properly and several more for her to speak.

"I can't find her down there. We have to go get help from the Zora's as they can do a better search. They can search the lake and streams that come off of the Hylia and do it better then we can." Impa then took in a deep breath to steady herself. "Your father also has to be told. Go to the guards and tell them that the queen has gone under the surface and has not come back up yet. Well, what are you waiting for child?"

She hated to be harsh with Zelda but when it came to continuing with the ploy then they had to act fast. Zelda stood where she was for a second before running up the hillside to the entrance, running as fast as her legs, and emotions, would let her. Impa stayed where she was, watching the water's surface ripple along the edges as a strong wind came gusting from the north. It disrupted the light flow of water and pushed small waves onto the shoreline. That was a sign that the elements had been waiting for Kaya to leave before they came down upon the lake, giving them enough time to speak about things properly. Despite everything that had just transpired, Impa still did not like the rush that it had caused.

"Kaya, don't forget about your daughter or where you came from," Impa said to no one in particular as she stood up and got ready to explain what had happened to the guards. It would be a longer day than expected.

_Beyond_ Book series and all original characters © Ameera Mae Laramie

_Legend of Zelda_ games, characters, and places © Nintendo and their original creator


	12. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven:

The day had just barely begun and there already was rumors spreading along the few merchants that were still setting up their wares and their potential customers that were already out of their beds. Some had claimed that they heard or knew someone that had seen the queen and princess of Hyrule ride out of the township and into the Field to go to wherever the Goddesses' knew they had gone. None had been stupid enough to follow the two regal horses out of the main gate to the town, not when three armed guards rode horseback around the two women. They had been dismissed rather quickly when guards had walked by the early morning gossipers, their stares silencing them just as quickly as they had started to speak; there need be no mention of where the queen and princess-heir was, not when they were not inside the castle.

The commoners had gone back to their morning chores and the merchants had resumed setting up their wares in the hopes that they would be able to catch a rare glimpse at the young Princess Zelda before she would be escorted back to the castle. There had been only three other times that Zelda had been seen in the Market and those times she had been escorted by her father and by a full legion of guards behind them; where they had been going at the time, none had been too bold to ask. Now they would see her without guards swarming around her and perhaps even see the queen without the king by her side, if they were lucky enough.

If the guards had started to squash the rumors that had spread around the commoner homes, the presence of Gerudo had finished the job quickly. The small band of Gerudo had come into the Market without word, their silence deafening to the already busy morning stalls; merchants and customers alike had stopped what they were doing to stare at the surprisingly small band of thieves. There were whispers among those that watched them, suspicious as to why such a small band had come so far and without so much of an indication as to why they had taken the long journey across the Field. Indeed it had been a long ride from the Desert that had taken them several hours to get there but to the Gerudo it had been worth the trip if it did not end in disaster.

Despite all of the stares that were being given to the Gerudo, they went about their business as though they did not take notice that they were being watched. This allowed all eyes to be trained on them while Ganondorf slipped away and towards the path that lead up to the castle. Even the guards took little notice that one of the thieves had disappeared from their sights, more focused on the young women that were flutter their eyelashes at the guards and smiling pretty. Only Nabooru and Callon did not seem to be enjoying their time at the Market, despite Nabooru catching the eye of one particular merchant. That gave Callon just enough time to swipe several jewels from the stall and pocket them into her horse's saddlebag and casually glance up to the looming form of the castle. She only frowned at it and moved on, intent to at least give Ganondorf his time in the castle.

Ganondorf had taken his time to walk up the path to the castle, especially when he had gotten to the gate that barred him entry from the castle grounds. He had to suppress a laugh when the guard standing at the gate gaped at him and stammered out orders for him to return back to the Market and beyond the borders of the township. Had Ganondorf not wished to go to the castle in a hurry, he would have stayed there and played mind games with the incompetent fool longer then he had but with time, and his patience, wearing thin he had not lingered more than he had to. When he came back through the gate with what he needed, information on the whereabouts of the pendant or the pendant itself, he would torment the poor fool longer if his mood had improved by then.

It had taken the guard around forty seconds to fumble for the right key to the gate and another thirty to get the gate open properly. By the time the iron gate had been unlocked, Ganondorf had tried his best to remain calm but his anger had emerged and he had forced the gate open by himself once it had been unlocked. He left the guard to stand where he had been, staring at the point of entry and key still in the lock of the gate, an almost horrified expression on his face. Just seeing the expression on the guards face had given him a small satisfaction despite the lingering foul taste he felt in his mouth from the last time he had visited the castle. Had he not want anything of power that came from within and trusted more of his clan, he would have sent in several Gerudo to the job for him instead of him doing it himself.

Ganondorf now stood at the gate of Hyrule Castle, his arms crossed loosely over his chest and a deep scowl on his face, as he waited impatiently for the draw bridge to fully come down to the ground. It had taken the guards inside five minutes to even take notice that there was a visitor to the castle and another two minutes to start lowering the draw bridge down so that he could enter. Oh there were other ways into the castle as there were with any structure this size but it was staying inside was what he wanted to do. Already he had visions of what he would do to each and every guard that served inside and outside the castle as well as the Royal Family itself. _Fools, all of them_, he thought bitterly to himself as he waited. _I _will _have the pendant this day, even if I have to kill both the Sheikah and the Royal Family to get it. What a pity to have to waste good weapons so needlessly on them._

By the time the bridge had fully lowered a few moments later, the Gerudo had become even more impatient then he had when he had first entered the castle grounds. He had little interest in waiting any longer and this was only delaying him further more. He had to hold his words as he walked across the wooden planks of the drawbridge, dropping his arms to his sides. Two guards had appeared at the entranceway to the castle, glaring at him from underneath their silver helmets and stood stiffly as he walked passed them. They both had a hand on the hilt of their silver swords that stayed sheathed at their sides, spears held tightly in the other hands just in case they had to use either one of their weapons. They still did not stop him from entering the castle since he had not entered in a threatening manner nor had they received any direct order from the king to keep Gerudo out of the castle that numbered more than five in a group. In due time, however, they would regret allowing Ganondorf to enter so willingly.

As soon as Ganondorf had taken ten steps into the castle, his eyes wandered around the main entranceway before falling onto a figure that was moving towards him rather quickly. He smirked inwardly, his lips actually parting into a frown when the king stopped only a few feet away from him and alone with the exception of the two guards stationed at the entrance. It was either good timing on Ganondorf's part that he had run into the king like he had or the king had been tipped off that the Gerudo had returned for another audience with the Royal Family. Either way it played right into his little trap and if he had his way that day, he would be one step closer to gaining the power he lust for.

In fact, the king _had_ been told that there was Gerudo presence within the Market and had started to gather several guards to disperse the threat as soon as possible once it had been known to him that there were, in fact, Gerudo still lingering inside the township. He had every intention of walking to the main entrance to tell the captain of the guard to kill all lingering Gerudo after this day when he had been given the word that a Gerudo male was already at the doorstep of the castle. Had the king not been in the presence of Ganondorf already he would have had him killed along with the thieves that were in the Market. He had no intentions of speaking to Ganondorf and had hoped to have gotten past the main entrance before the drawbridge had come down fully. Now he had to confront the man he wished would remain in the desert until he died.

"I thought I told you to leave the castle and not return," the king snapped as the two of them attempted to smile at each other even slightly without looking _too_ forced. Ganondorf placed his hands behind his back, attempting to look slightly hurt at the idea he had been told to leave without even being there for more than ten seconds in the presence of the king. "And I know I meant that."

"You did, sire, but there is a matter that must be taken care of. _Immediately_." Ganondorf smiled rather warmly when he emphasized the word _immediately_, staring the king straight in the eyes. Had the two of them not met before, the Hylian would have backed down ever so slightly before demanding what was so important that it couldn't wait. Instead, he gave the stare right back but rather than return the smile he frowned deeply as Ganondorf's smile was wide.

"Whatever it is, it can be taken care of at another date. Right now I have other and more important things to tend to." That would have normally ended a conversation with anyone else and to emphasize that point, he started to walk in the direction opposite the way he came. He did not get very far, with Ganondorf stepping three steps backwards and then left, into the path of the now very irate king. Taking in a sigh, the king rubbed his head and stared beyond the Gerudo; if he didn't make eye contact then he could fight the urge to have this man thrown into the dungeon much more then he would if he continued to stare at him. "What is it that you need? My patience is wearing thin, Ganondorf."

"Your Excellency," Ganondorf started, his smile faltering ever so slightly, "this cannot be put off any longer. I _must_ have information regarding one of those in your employ and what she knows."

The king froze where he was, his body stiffening in defense. If the Gerudo presence in the Market had been suspicious to him, then asking information about one of the servants was just as, if not more. It took all of his effort to look the Gerudo up and down, taking in the way he was standing to the expression on his face. If a Gerudo wanted information out of something then that meant there had to be a rupee value to it if not by gold; they had little use for knowledge and information unless it benefited them. In all of the years that he had ruled Hyrule so far, the king had not once heard of a Gerudo wanting information from the Royal Family.

"What kind of information do you need?" He asked stiffly, not inclined to give any details of matters that would stay in the confines of the castle. Ganondorf didn't seem to take notice of the defensiveness that the king had started to take, smiling ever so slightly more.

"There is a certain artifact that I would like to see, something that I had heard of in passing from one of my newest members of the Gerudo." He then gestured to the entranceway they were standing in. "It is contained within the castle walls, or so I have heard. I am hoping that I would be able to view it." Ganondorf then raised his hands in defense before any words could be spoken from the Hylian's mouth. "With no intention of stealing, I might add. You can have all of your best soldiers watching me every second if you feel much safer doing so."

"Which 'artifact' are you talking about?" The king then gestured the same way Ganondorf had. "There are plenty of things that are in the castle in which you are welcome to see, under the supervision of the guards like you just mentioned. You may observe them but I warn you that thieves aren't taken lightly."

"Of course, of course. I understand." Inwardly, Ganondorf struggled to keep his sanity at a level that wouldn't overflow. _Not yet,_ he told himself mentally. _You can't kill the bastard just yet._ "However, this is something only that Sheikah of yours knows about."

"Impa?" He asked, more than a bit surprised. Very few in Hyrule would want to see a Sheikah for information. especially Gerudo, and even fewer were stupid enough to ask about the objects they made. Even so, this made the Hylian think about what the Sheikah was hiding in the castle and that made him worry. "What does she know that I do not?"

With that, the Gerudo's smile became even more apparent on his features and what looked like a content expression lit up his face. If the very king did not know what lie beneath his feet, then that meant any secrets of the Sheikah were still unknown to the current generation of the Royal Family. This gave him an even bigger opportunity to scheme under the king's nose and a better way of getting what he wanted from the Sheikah. Despite the worried and surprised mixed expression on the king's face, and knowing that he know had something to think about, Ganondorf would have an easier time getting the pendant from the castle. If it wasn't heavily guarded by the royal soldiers then that was one less hassle he would have to deal with.

"It is a private matter that I must speak to her with." The smile faded from his lips and he pressed his lips into a thin line. "Sheikah are prone to have secrets and plan on keeping it that way until they die."

"What makes you think she would share her secrets with _you_?" The king asked defiantly. "I am sure that you, out of all the people in Hyrule, would understand this."

"I have ways of getting information out that you, as king of Hyrule, do not possess." Ganondorf took a step forwards as though he was intimidating the king. "I'll need to speak with her as soon as possible."

"Of course," he said, hardly one to have intimidation work on him. "However, Impa is not here. She is elsewhere at the moment and quite possibly will not be returning until later tonight if that late." He then gestured to the still open drawbridge. "If it can wait until tomorrow or later in the week, I am sure that she would be _delighted_ to help you."

If the king had seen what anger had looked like on Ganondorf at their last meeting, then he had only seen a fraction of what a Gerudo's anger could really look like. Ganondorf's face contorted into what could only be described as fury but in reality it was just a minimal percentage of the pent-up frustration that he still had. His eyes narrowed into almost small slits, the corners of his mouth curving into a frown, and his teeth baring out into a hiss. His entire body seemed to shift into a different form, his muscles tensing and his hands ball into fists of rage; his whole demeanor changed with the words of the man standing in front of him. Even at this stage there was nothing the two guards would be able to do quell the Gerudo's fury, not when he had been waiting all of this time just to get this far. Even so, a quiet voice inside of him somewhere had to tell him to keep the rest of his anger in check or he would regret any actions he made.

"NO! I must see her _now!_" His voice rang throughout the room, echoing off of the walls and into the side hallways. Both guards at the entrance jumped their heads turning towards the Gerudo for a moment before they snapped back to their original positions. Even the king had to take several steps back partly due because of the tone and volume of the voice; even when Ganondorf spoke his next words, they were still loud but not as loud as the ones that he had pleasantly shouted. "Drag her back to the castle if you must. Call her back from wherever she is, she _must_ be here."

The king took in a deep breath, silently wishing to himself that he could do such a thing. How he would enjoy seeing Impa squirm with guards on either side of her, pulling her from the Hylia and through the Market. Then she wouldn't be so cocky with snickering commoners at her back, watching as normal Hylians pulled a mighty Sheikah through the town square. That would give him satisfaction beyond what even Ganondorf could ever hope for and want; even the thought gave him a slight pleasure. And if the Gerudo could make her existence a bit more torturous, that not only would humble the woman but would give him something to threaten her with. _Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea to allow a proposition of a short-lived alliance with Ganondorf, _he thought to himself with a smile.

"As much as it would please the both of us if I dragged her body back to the castle, I cannot do such a thing. There is certain things she has to do and they must be done." _Or I'll never be able to get a night's rest again,_ the king added silently to himself. Despite the thoughts of seeing Impa dragged through the Market all humiliated, he still feared a sharp reaction from the other Sheikahs and quite possibly from Impa herself, threats or not. He didn't pretend to know the inner workings of how Sheikah worked or their magic and he didn't want to test the limitations of said magic or their anger. They were a natural companion to the Royal Family and to lose not only the support of the Sheikah but their protection would be met with disaster.

"Don't expect me to be as nice this time around, Your Highness," Ganondorf growled deeply. "I am not in the mood to tolerate such things."

That had been a direct threat on the king's life and he would have had the guards stationed at the entrance on either side of Ganondorf, dragging him down to the dungeons to wait for his death to come. Taking in account that Ganondorf's anger level had risen quite considerably since their first meeting several weeks ago, he let it slide knowing that this anger could very well be useful in the future. After all, thieves were expandable and could get into places an army of soldiers could not get into nor could the commoner population. As much as he hated to admit it, the Gerudo Clan of the desert _did_ have their uses no matter how small they were or what they did to survive.

Rubbing a hand along his chin, the king looked the Gerudo up and down several times again to take in the man standing before him. His eyes had opened more since his outburst and his muscles and grown several inches due to some abnormal power that coursed through his body. Something else had changed within him, a curious power that could possibly rival the Three Goddesses of legend. If only he, the king, believed in such nonsense then he would have believed in the unknown power that he could almost feel coming from Ganondorf himself. Maybe there was a possibility that he could extract information out of Impa and even share it with the Royal Family.

"I have a proposition for you, Ganondorf," the king started as he tapped a finger on his chin. "If you can extract any information out of Impa, you can have whatever it is that she is hiding and quite possibly more." He could tell that he had gotten the Gerudo's attention when he raised an eyebrow to continue. "All I ask is that you return at a later date and share the information with me." He then raised a hand to stop Ganondorf from speaking. "That's all I require, nothing more. I am a man of my word, just a simple ruler like yourself. At the moment, however, I cannot get that damnable Sheikah back into the castle without using considerable force and that force won't go unnoticed by the common people, and I wouldn't want to cause an uproar at this time."

Ganondorf's face changed drastically, his body relaxing only slightly when he watched the Hylian's face smile back at him. He couldn't tell if there was any deceit to the man's words or if he would hold true to his words; regardless, it sounded like something he would be willing to take. But how far would he be able to go to get such information out? And would the king go back on his word if he knew what this so-called pendant could do? Even Ganondorf didn't know exactly what it did and he was more than willing to stake his life on learning what Sheikan magic worked in a cheap charm. And if the king went back on his word, not only would he feel the wraith of the Gerudo, he would feel the fury that was Ganondorf.

That gave him something to think about as they stood there, engulfed in silence. One contemplated the proposal that had been given to him and the other stared at him with a smile. The king knew he was staking this on something that he couldn't really promise and he would retract it as soon as he could get what he wanted from both Impa and Ganondorf alike. Gerudo, to him, were all alike and this one was no different from the rest that he had thrown into the dungeon below. Ganondorf, however, had already formed his own plan in his mind and could use this fool in front of him as a way to get back into the castle for the pendant if things went downhill. After all, information could be twisted around so that no one would really know the truth behind it especially when it concerned the Sheikah.

"Do what you will with the Sheikah when she returns, but speak nothing of this meeting to her or anyone else. That includes your guards." Ganondorf's eyes flickered over to the two that stood by the entrance. The guards knew that he had come into the castle but they didn't have to know why he was there or what, or who, he was looking for. "I prefer to catch her unawares when I return. All I ask in return for this is her artifact and knowledge on how to use it."

He stretched out his hand as a way to seal the deal, the king smiled to himself and laughing inwardly as he took Ganondorf's hand. Shaking on the words spoken, both were already breaking their promises and finding ways to step around the deals that had been forged so roughly. Had this been put to paper and signed by other kingdoms, it would be considered treason to contort the words of another leader. This wasn't, however, any other treaty or ruler that they were dealing with but raw, unchecked power that neither knew about. They dropped their hands to their sides, both bowing their heads ever so slightly to each other as a way to finalize their silent pact.

Ganondorf then turned and strode out of the entrance room, leaving the king to go about his duties as though there had been no meeting between Hylian and Gerudo. He watched him go into the castle grounds, a wondering look appearing on his face as he sighed and shook his head. He would return to his study and mark down what had just happened; Impa would eventually know when the time came for Ganondorf to return to the castle. That gave him pleasure enough, to see the surprised and horrified look that would be on her face. _In due time_, he told himself.

Shrugging at a passing thought, he walked to the other side of the room and went about his business for the day. Nothing else would make this day any better than it already had.

_Beyond_ Book series and all original characters © Ameera Mae Laramie

_Legend of Zelda_ games, characters, and places © Nintendo and their original creator


	13. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve:

The last bit of light that had been seen felt like hours ago, the darkness of the void consuming whatever rays of light was generated from outlaying sources. There were dots of lights where other Worlds were stationed, orbs of life where other beings lived and thrived however they managed to cling to life. The void was like a cloudless night sky with stars shining brightly to mark the other places which one could gaze upon from the comfort of their own gardens. Those planets had been out of reach but now one such person could reach out and touch those same Worlds if she wanted to and yet still was so far away from the one she had grown up in and the one she was going to.

The darkness of these surroundings left Kaya to wonder where she was going and if she was going to get there or if she would remaining in this seemingly limitless void of nothing. She spiraled in the vortex that did not look like it had an end in sight, her mind racing with the possibilities that she may never see a World in sight. Since she had entered the void through the cold waters of the Hylia, she wondered if she had made the correct choice in leaving her World behind. It was too late to fix the haste that she had left Hyrule in and the horror that she had left Zelda and Impa with. By this time, however long she had been in the darkness, the guards would have known that the queen was not at the lakeside and most likely had drowned in the lake. They would be on their way to the castle-town by now if they had not already entered the Market, hurriedly going to the castle to tell the king of what had happened.

The queen had zeen Zelda's paralyzing look on fer face as soon as the queen had dived into the water of Lake Hylia; despite her resolve at the time not to look back at her daughter, she _had_ to take one last look at the child. It would be something she would never forget in the time she had remaining nor would ever live down for the same period of time. The princes-heir was the only reason she had momentarily hesitated in the first place and why she wanted to go back to her own World to retrieve her yet she did not. For some reason or another she felt it wouldn't be fair to a greater destiny to do so and would create a rift in the stream of Time. Something pulled her into this path and it held her to it regardless of what she did and didn't want to do.

She held the bag she had brought with her close to her chest, making sure that nothing would be lost or dropped in case she needed these items in the future. Kaya didn't trust the vortex of the void, or herself, if she reached into the bag to check on the two books and jar she had placed into it. Those items would serve her in the times to come, the books to write her thoughts down and memories of the World she was about to go into so that she would be able to somehow send it to her daughter to read. The jar of rupees would most likely last her for the remaining years left despite her not knowing if these gems could be used in the World she still had her mind set on.

Even though she felt a dizziness wash over her that made her close her eyes several times, she continued to go through the path that lead her from the World she was familiar with to the World she knew nothing of. _When will this end?_ She thought to herself as she tried to open her eyes once last time. When she did she still found herself enclosed in total darkness, the same darkness that would lead her to the World of the Humans and not straight into Hell itself. _I can not stand falling like this much longer if I am falling in the first place._

Kaya took in a deep breath to steady herself, her body seemingly starting to slow down to a point where she didn't feel like she was spinning downwards in a spiral of nothing. The darkness began to fade away into a gray-like color which she welcomed more then the darkness that had consumed her, the gray becoming more and more lighter. Like it had begun when she had first started her journey the gray soon turned into white then into a clear, almost transparent color. Suddenly she felt herself drop from a sky that was not familiar to her and into a tree below, the ground below her many feet below; she had to quickly grasp a tree branch so she wouldn't fall onto the grass below. She hung like that for several minutes before she managed to pull herself back onto the branch and take in a deep breath of air; where she had come to she could at least breath in oxygen.

After she put the bag into her lap and placed her back against the trunk of the tree she made sure that she had not lost any of her belongings. The two books she had with her and the jar of rupees was still there, a sigh escaping her lips as she leaned her head against the tree and took in a deep breath. She had come into a new World now and was far away -- or so she hoped -- from Hyrule as possible; it was a new start in a strange land that she would have to learn to adjust to. She kept her eyes closed for twenty seconds before opening them again and pulled her head forwards so she could take a good look around at the place she had fallen.

Down below her people were walking along on hard paths and not even taking a single look up at her as though they did not care; these paths ended at the grass that lead up to the tree. They were dressed in strange clothing and were talking to each other in a language that she had heared from several Shields long ago, others talking in different languages that she could not make out yet. They did not look Hylian to her, her mind now assuming that they were Humans or they were in a clever disguise. Several of these Humans had small, dog-like creatures on what looked like leashes and were moving away from her, some putting odd-looking devices pressed against their ears; what they were used for she didn't know and would eventually learn about if she had time for that. Others moved about with shoes that had wheels attached to them, going in a different direction then the ones that had the dog-like creatures on the leashes.

"Did I make it? Am I in the Human World?" She breathed, continuing to look around. There were tall buildings in the distance that were made of some sort of metal, rising up to the sky and at different heights and dimensions. There were weird sounds coming from somewhere, honking, screeching of something against stone, and other such noises that she did not know what they were or how they were being made. Booming music came from behind her, scaring Kaya for a moment before it faded into the distance; people were talking about her and still continued to ignore the strange woman in the tree. All she knew so far was that she was safe in this World for the time being and no longer in her own realm; perhaps she could find some place to stay without much interference and difficulty.

"Hey, lady! What are you doing up there?" A voice demanded from below her. Kaya blinked her eyes, surprised that someone actually saw her as she looked down with a attempt to conceal her surprise. She saw what appeared to be a man standing there on the hard path with his hands on his hips and his head and front of his body turned towards her. He wore a pair of black pants, a blue shirt, and a pair of shoes that enclosed his feat entirely; there were badges and other devices on his body that she didn't know what were for and she assumed he most likely was part of some sort of military branch. "You need to come down from there now. There are laws about climbing trees in this park, and I already arrested three people this week because of it. If you like to join them you can stay there for all I care."

"Can you repeat that please?" The queen asked in her own tongue, a vague smile on her lips. While she understood the words that he had said from the Sheikah that had taught her other languages, she had to be sure that she wasn't in Hyrule any longer. The ones that had taught her this language and others had long since departed Hyrule, taking what she had thought to be an old language with them to their new homes or their early graves. Few could understand this outside her former home and she had to make sure that he wasn't one of Condorcet's followers or a soldier of the Royal Family; she was keen on not being dragged back to the castle. "I do not understand your words so please repeat them in our tongue."

"Oh great, a foreigner. Just what I needed to end this day," he muttered to himself as he scratched the back of his head. He looked around for a moment like he was trying to figure out what he was going to do and how to deal with a _foreigner_; he had confused look on his face as he did. "Okay, I....damn it. Now, I don't know what language you are speaking but I am sure that it is Spanish or some language related to it. I'll call one of my officers to come coax you down from your perch so we can take you down to the station. And here I though I was going home early, too."

Kaya had to suppress a laugh when she saw the confusion on his face, the man in front of her shaking his head. All the while he had spoken and looked around, she smiled and held her words back for as long as she could. Swinging her legs over the side of the branch, she watched as the man lowered his arms to his side and placed a hand on an odd-looking device on his belt. At that moment she tensed up, her smile vanishing and her game of fun ended; she didn't know what he was going to do and this man was the first one to acknowledge that she was there. If he was going to get someone else to attempt to translate when she didn't need anyone to, she would have to speak before he could.

"No, no. There is no need to call for a translator," she told him in the basic words she could remember. He was about to pull the device from his belt when he looked up at her in surprise, blinking back the emotion as best as he could without trying to really show it to her. "I am perfectly capable of speaking your language."

"Good. For a second there I thought I'd have to call someone," The man mused, putting the device back into the holder it was in. "That makes my job a whole lot easier."

"Well the old Sheikahs have taught me the language. There are other races on my World that speak it, and I had a choice in which languages to learn." Kaya suppressed a nervous laugh, not intending to fully speak of where she was from at the moment. Instead of looking surprised the man stared at her unblinking as though this was the first time he had seen her; that made her even more uncomfortable then she was already.

"Huh? Sheikahs?" He asked, frowning. "Lady what kind of drugs are you on?"

"They are a mystical race that lives in my World," She said flat out. Inwardly she sighed and rolled her eyes at the man; she knew she wasn't in Hyrule now and she had to reason with herself that the things she knew, Humans wouldn't understand.

"Sure they are, sure." The man was hesitating at something, his face contorting into what looked like disbelief to her but she could be certain. Kaya had only been in the Human World for ten minutes, maybe less, and she couldn't be sure if Human expressions were the same as Hylian. They resembled a race that was outside the boundaries of Hyrule, sure, but appearances could be deceiving; Kaya had learned that early on in her life. "And which country did you come from? India? Russia? Japan."

Kaya furrowed her brow at him. "No, Hyrule. I'm sure that you haven't heard of that land."

In all respects she assumed he didn't since she was far away from her own World, or as far away as the pendant had allowed her. Mechanically she put a hand onto the bauble that hung around her next all the while keeping her eyes upon him; she didn't trust him more then he trusted her. She was new to a World that didn't know where she had come from or who she was and she would have to learn that she had no authority anymore. All of that was gone now, put into the past that she had left behind and jumped into an uncertain future that she could not control. That would be her lesson for the next few months, a self-taught lesson that not even Impa could see her do.

In turn he kept his own eyes on her, the inner workings of his mind thinking of some what to excuse the strange lady's words. To most people around him he couldn't disprove of what she had just claimed but he wasn't most people and he _could_ prove it. How soon he could to this woman was only a matter of time and respect; he had a whole force of people that couldn't disprove. In time he would show her that one simple word, Hyrule, was a place that could exist outside the imagination and beyond that. It also ment that something was about to happen that he had be warned about years ago and most likely had already begun. For now, though, he feigned that surprised look and would play dumb for now.

"Hyrule?" He said mockingly, a toying smile coming upon his lips. "Lady either you are on some kind of drug or you have been playing those Zelda games too much. It's giving you delusions or something along the lines of that."

Now it was Kaya's turn to look surprised, her face looking horrified and all color drained from her face. Her entire body froze where it was, her hand part way from the bauble she had been fingering around her neck. The man had just mentioned _Zelda's_ name; had she been followed from Hyrule to the Human World already? Or had someone known she left in advance and come before she had? Her mind flashed back to what Impa had told her earlier, that there were three other pendants that had been created and one of them had never been found; the other two were safe, or so the Sheikah had assured her. Was Zelda's life in danger now or even her own?

Then her face went ridged to mask the horror that had once been there, fury replacing that horror. She was not going to let a Human impose fear in her, not when she had important things to protect; but hadn't she left something important behind unprotected? _No! Zelda's safe with Impa, she would never let my child come to harm,_ Kaya thought to herself, carefully trying to think of something to say to this man. He was an imposter of a Human, if she could prove it to herself. Dispelling magic had never been her strongest point and she couldn't see any aura's around the man that would prove he was of Hylian decent. In fact she couldn't see _any_ aura around him; was he even alive?

"How do you know of my daughter's name?" She hissed out as soon as she could formulate the correct words to spit at him. The man's playful smile deteriorated slightly but nonetheless still danced on his lips.

"Sure she is your daughter. I've played those games myself but you don't see me sitting in a tree talking about a land that isn't real," he said before waving at her to get down. "Now get out of that tree before I have to come up there and force you down myself."

Kaya did not comply with him as she stared down at him with the intent to kill him when she go the chance to. Regardless of the laws that governed this World, ten years locked up in some forsaken place had the same effect as behind caged in the castle; she would be looking out rather then looking in. A voice of reason shouted at her from within her own mind, telling her she had not left Hyrule just to be imprisoned in another cage; had that not been the reason she had left?

"I am not joking about this," the man said when the queen did not respond to his order. "Get down now. You're under arrest for disobeying a direct order from a police officer."

"I'm not joking either. I shall get down but you are _arresting_ a Royal Family member." Kaya narrowed her eyes at him, moving her body so that she could land onto the ground safely. She wasn't getting out of the tree because she was ordered to but because it was starting to get rather uncomfortable where she was sitting and she wasn't about to spent the rest of her days stuck in a tree.

"That is it, good. I will..." he started just as Kaya launched herself off of the tree and jumped down from the branch. She landed onto the grass below, smoothing out the clothing that she wore and placing a bag strap back onto her shoulder. She then straighted her back and turned towards him, a light smile appearing. "...catch you. Never mind then."

"There is no need to catch me as you plain see," She responded with a slight bow and smugness. That nerved the man and she took a bit of pleasure in knowing that she had; she wouldn't let herself get too smug just yet. "I've climbed the trees of the castle and a few at the entrance to the Kokiri forest many times in my youth. I've learned how to get myself down."

"You still on that damn Hyrule crap?" He muttered, stepping onto the grass and grabbed the queen's arm. He started to pull her towards the pavement that he had been standing on to get her to where he could properly put her into his car, fully intent on taking back to the police station. There he would either lock her up for a bit or show her that things weren't all that they seemed, even in a unfamiliar World.

He didn't pull her too far as Kaya pulled her arm out of his grasp, backing up far enough so that he wouldn't grab her again. Rolling his eyes to nothing in particular and to keep the woman from seeing him do so, he turned around to face her and shook his head; why were other Worlders so difficult to help? His intentions were not to harm her the slightest and whatever she had been through had scarred her enough to pull away from him. He wasn't known to be gentle and Kaya wasn't used to be ordered around like this much less being _pulled_ in the direction she didn't want to go in. She was starting to wonder if coming to this World had been a grand idea to begin with and there were other Worlds to go to; why had she gone to the first World that had been mentioned to her?

"How _dare_ you do that!" Kaya protested loudly enough that warranted hostile glances towards her. Ignoring them, she starred daggers at the pavement to curb her anger before raising her eyes back to him. "Are _all_ Humans this rude?"

"No, just me but there are worse out there. You just haven't met them yet and pray that you never will," he told her point-blank. "Come on, a night behind bars should do you good. In the morning we'll find your family so that they cane be aware that you are safe, sound, and not in a gutter somewhere."

When he mentioned the word 'family', Kaya's face lost what little color it had regained after the inital shock of him knowing Zelda's name. What family she had left was now elsewhere and she couldn't go back to them, not that she wanted to now -- there was nothing left for her to go back to save for her own daughter. She pushed back four loose strands out of her eyes and behind her ears, which the man now could see were not rounded but rather pointed; anyone that saw them could assume they were Elven in appearance and that she looked like she _was_ from another World entirely. If her words had convinced him her ears did now.

"They do not care if I am okay or now. I don't think they are even looking for my body right now," Kaya told him which was the truth as far as she knew. She couldn't be sure if her husband had even bothered to look for her if Impa, Zelda, and the guards had gotten back to the castle. At this time she was more then sure that they had and there would be no search for her body just yet, not until he could prove that the queen of Hyrule was dead. He was a man of his word and he would send the guards out after her, just like he promised; they wouldn't find her, not unless pendants were used.

It was time for her to move on now, time to ignore this man and start her way into a new life. She did just that, standing up straight and walking to the path with her few belongings with her and pressed firmly over her shoulder where they should be. There would be time for her to get to know Humans, if she could find ones that weren't so ready to place her into custody of the law. _If there are Humans out to harm a woman then I must find those who do not,_ She thought to herself as she turned to her right and started to walk towards the entrance of the park. She didn't know where she was going or where she would end up, just that she would be getting out of there and fast.

"Lady, wait!" The man called out to her when she got far enough away from him so that he had to jog up to her. The queen did not slow down as she continued to walk away, ready to get out of this park and into the World beyond that.

"What do you want?" She asked as he came up to her and walked beside her. The sun above them was unusually hot and she hadn't prepared herself enough for the seasons of this World quite yet.

"If you say that you are from this place called Hyrule then how did you get into this World?" That was a question she had dreaded to answer and she proved to be a know-it-all already to him regardless of the precaution she should have taken when the two of them first spoke. It was too late for her to go back onto the words she had already spoken and she couldn't very well tell a lie to him when she already gave him the truths.

"This pendant gave me the power to travel here from my World to here. Don't ask me how it works because I don't know how to explain it or how it does work." She patted the bauble around her neck, giving him a sideways look. That was a half-truth, she _did _know how it worked just not the Sheikah magical properties it had been given. "I'd show you my kingdom but I'm not going back there. Not for the rest of my life."

"That fair and it's quite alright. I believe you then," He said, holding his hands up in defeat. Kaya stopped in her tracks, the man walking two feet more before he stopped as well and turned around to face her. Staring straight ahead, she tried to keep her face neutral from all the emotions she was feeling at that moment and to keep herself from lashing out at him even more then she did already. The man had tested every last nerve that she had and she was beginning to wonder if using the pendant would be a good idea to get out of the way of a meddling fool.

"If you believe me when you say you didn't, why question my words?" She asked without looking at him. The strange man walked up to her with the impression that he had said that just to make her stop, his face just as neutral as hers. It was time for her to know something that he knew and for him to find out what was going on that involved these two Worlds so much.

"First there needs to be some explaining to do and you'll provide half of it to me. Second, you'll listen to the other half when it comes to you. And third, you'll do as I say so that you won't get lost in this place," he snapped at her as he took her by the arm once again but holding on to her more tightly. He wasn't about to let her go again as he started to lead her out of the park to go who-knows-where in a World that she did not know. What he ment by his words she didn't know and it intrigued her that there had to be some sort of explaining to do. What it was and why it involved her only made her fearful of what was to come, if she could pull herself out of the rut she was in. She would have to allow herself to get mixed up in something she didn't know of to understand things better; that would most likely cost her life.

"Where are you taking me?" Kaya demanded coldly, glaring up at him. He didn't let go of her arm but instead held onto her tightly to ensure that she wouldn't get away from him again.

"I'm not going to harm you," he assured her softly, giving her a sideways smile. That alone didn't help her as much as it should have but the gentleness in his voice gave her the impression that she wouldn't be in danger just yet. Not until she understood what was going on. "There are a few things we both need to learn and it's time to set things straight."

The look in his eyes told her to remain quiet and not to question his decision, a look that the queen had learned from her husband rather quickly. But this man didn't have the aura of the pig that she had been married to, no it was a wave of greens and silvers that she couldn't remember the meaning behind. The aura was too light, too faded, for her to properly make out and watch for patterns of; the brightness of the sun above gave this aura the appearance that it was nearly invisible. That was why she couldn't see it before, because it was too bright for her to see properly! She made a mental note to herself that she would watch him more closely to see if the aura would be more clearer to her then it was in bright light.

Time would tell if the decisions she had had made had been too hasty or if they had put two or more Worlds in more danger then they should be.

_Beyond_ series and all original characters © Ameera Mae Laramie

_Legend of Zelda_ games, characters, and places © Nintendo and their original creator


	14. Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen:

Hoof beats rang out from Hyrule Field as four horses galloped quickly towards the approaching gate of Hyrule Town, leaving a trail of dust behind them. Their riders, Impa and Zelda on one horse with three guards on the other three horses, had driven the creatures from the Hylia faster then they had gotten to the lake; the return trip home had a tint of urgency about it that couldn't be ignored. There was panic on the guard's faces, something that they could not hide as well as the other two riders were. What exactly happened was only a mystery to the commoners that saw the horses approaching at a fast pace before anyone in the Market saw the creatures and they wouldn't know unless the king made it so.

It was a trip back to the castle was one that she did not wish to make nor did she feel like she should have done it in the first place. It was difficult enough to have gone through the incident at the Hylia but it was even worse having to leave the lake-side without one person in their group. Had she known this would have happened today she would have prepared herself for it rather then going blindly into a situation such as this. There was a dreaded feeling inside of Impa that told her, in the voice of reasoning that she had ignored that very morning, that had told her something was wrong somewhere and now that wrong had appeared out of nowhere. She should have listened to that voice like she had always done before but had chosen to ignore it instead on this day. Now she regretted that decision.

Zelda had gone as fast as she could have to get to the guards when they had been at the Hylia and when they had come to the lakeside to see what the fuss was about, they found Impa standing up with an indescribable look on her face. Both herself and the child explained what Kaya had done and what Impa's actions had been, despite Zelda freezing up and sobbing uncontrollably for several moments. One of the guards had offered to go into the lake himself to see if their story was true although he poorly tried to hide the smirk that came upon his face; the other two looked as panicked as Zelda felt and had no intentions of returning to the castle without the queen in tow. Impa had stared at them rather blandly and had wanted to hit some sense into all three of them; they would have to return to the castle eventually and a search needed to be done. Or as she had claimed; there was no need to tell anyone of the secret in which Impa now held.

Which was now where they were almost to as the horses galloped as fast as they could over the draw bridge and into the gateway that lead into the township just beyond it. Impa and Zelda's horse was the first thing the commoners saw before they jumped rather quickly out of the way of the galloping creature; the three guards came not too far behind them and without even any regards as to who was in their way. A loud muttering followed the four creatures when they did not see Kaya's horse with the others; had it only been the princess-heir that had gone out of the township earlier that morning? If so, why were they rushing back to the castle so? Or had something happened to the queen? At the moment Impa didn't care what the common folk thought, just that any ruse that she could give to the king would be believed.

The guards that were at the entrance to the pathway of the castle took four steps back from their post despite being more then out of the way of the horses, their heads turning as the creatures moved one-by-one onto the dirt path. The road to the castle seemed longer then it did mere hours ago, the riders slowing their rides down only because of the iron gate that stood in front of them; it was closed and a single guard was standing in the middle of the road right in front of the gate itself to keep commoners out and royalty inside. When he saw four out of the five riders that had set out that morning arrive, one of his eyebrows rose up in wonderment and a frown showed his displeasure at seeing one less rider then there had been earlier. As his eyes moved over Impa, Zelda, and then the guards as they came to a halt at the gate, his mouth moved wordlessly at each of their names as though it would produce the queen at any moment.

"Open the gate," Impa demanded rather horsely once the horses had slowed down to a stop in front of the gate. If the soldier hadn't heard the frantic hoof beats coming around the corner of the path, he could surely now hear the whine of importance in her voice. Like the loud, fast hoofs hitting the ground when the horses rode onto the path, the guard ignored Impa's tone and stared at her with a dull, bored look.

"Where's the queen?" He asked without blinking at the shaking guards behind Impa and Zelda's horse.

"It's an urgent matter that can not wait," the Sheikah responded. The question the guard had asked would remain unanswered unless the three guards behind her would burst out that the queen wasn't with them but had drowned at the lake, or so Zelda and Impa claimed.

"I can not...." the gate guard started before he was rather rudely interrupted.

"Open the bloody gate _now_ or face the wraith of the king yourself!" One of the guards behind the princess-heir and Sheikah snapped, cutting the gate guard off before he could say another word. The gate guard shuffled his weight from one foot to the other before turning around and walking to the gate itself; had he not been threatened to be reported to the king for refusing passage to the castle by another guard, he would have ignored the request further more. Pausing at the iron bars, he glanced wearily over his shoulder with the frown still on his lips and started to push the gate open rather slowly. It took him a full minute to get the gate two inches open which, by that time, the guards behind the white horse were getting more impatient then Impa was.

"What's taking you so long to open the gate?" Impa asked quietly but it would have been better if she had shouted instead of whispered. The gate guard had paused so long that the guards behind Impa and Zelda dismounted their horses and started to make their way to the gate itself; if one guard could not -- or would not -- open the gate, then three others would. That's exactly what they did, pushing the gate guard out of the way and pulling the gate open more then enough to accomodate two horses side-by-side.

One of the guards dashed through the gate ahead of Impa and Zelda, the other two quickly moved to their horses as Impa and Zelda rode through the gate and towards the castle itself. The horse had several minutes in order to recover from galloping from the Hylia so fast and in a short amount of time and now was being forced to go a bit further now that the castle was in sight. Impa mentally told the creature that there would be an extra bucket of oats for it when she had finally faced the last bit of the king's wraith for losing Kaya so easily and allowing her to drown in the lake. Although she knew that he really wouldn't care, Impa wouldn't go unpunished nor would it be fully ignored; if it was, she would get off lightly.

The castle loomed in front of them and it seemed as though it was taking longer to get to the gates then ever before; with the tragic news that she had to bring to the king and the rest of Hyrule, she dreaded to even be in the presence of the castle itself. It wasn't the feeling of fear of the castle _itself_ that made her feel uneasy, it was the people _inside_ that made her want to turn the horse with her and Zelda and run to beyond the borders of Hyrule. Which was what she should of done when she had the chance to at the Hylia, grab Zelda and attempt to scale the walls that surrounded the lake on all sides. Maybe then she wouldn't be so afraid of the king's reaction when he found out that Kaya had slipped his grasp for the last time.

Zelda coughed in her sobs, her young mind still trying to make sense of everything that had happened in that morning, Impa putting a hand on the princess-heir's head to soothe her even more as the horses slowed down as they came upon the already down draw bridge to the castle. Even the two guards behind them appeared to be surprised at it being down before they had taken the last climb to the castle exterior; the guard that had gone through before Impa's horse had only gone through far enough to tell the other guards stationed around the inner pathway what had happened at the Hylia. They had done what the three guards had done at the lake and appeared to be panicked stricken but could not hide the smirk on their faces. If they knew what was good for them they would start a search for Kaya as quickly as they could but not make an effort of it.

Impa felt a feeling of despair wash over her as she dismounted her horse, nearly dropped Zelda when she pulled the child from the stead, and started to walk quickly towards the castle doors. That feeling didn't come from the fear of what would happen to her but something else entirely, like a dark cloud hung over the castle and she didn't like the feeling of that. The guards stationed at the main entrance of the doorway had it already open for the Sheikah and the princess-heir, hardly feigning their surprise when the queen wasn't with them. One of them tried to ask her where Kaya was but got as far opening his mouth before Impa's right fist contacted with his face, namely the bridge of his nose.

"I want no more questions to be asked then have already been nor do I want to explain myself _again_." Lowering her arm to the side, she picked Zelda up so that the child wouldn't have to walk far to get to her father. She would use the girl as a shield between herself and the king if she had to, now that the only person that could give birth to another heir was gone from this World. If anything it helped keep her from harm, if it were for the good of the only heir. "Where's the king?"

"He's in his study," the other guard managed to squeak out as the one Impa had punched had fallen to his knees in pain and was clutching his now broken and bloody nose. The fear of facing a Sheikah's wraith was only fueled by the look in her eyes as she swiftly turned away from him. She knew where the king's study was and it was one of the few places in which guards did not intentionally guard with the king's orders. There she would have to explain what had happened in the most level of voices and hope for the best out of this dire situation.

The guards she would worry about later as she stalked into the castle without even so much as a look over her shoulder. Even with the events of today and the loss of her mother, Zelda still kept her eyes on the guards and stuck her tongue out at them; it summed up almost the exact feelings Impa had about the guards herself but much deeper. She couldn't smile at this moment, not let her own guard down until she had proff that she had done the right thing. How and when she'd know it would happen she couldn't tell; the trick was to keep the mystery of the Sheikah by telling all but bending the truth by keeping back what was most important. She couldn't afford -- no, _Hyrule_ couldn't afford -- to lose anything.

For the future's sake, she hoped that the decisions made today didn't end in disaster.

XXXX

The light from the surrounding candles and single torch did little to help him read the latest rolled up parchment he had received from a country he couldn't exactly remember and wasn't too keen on reading the entire seven-foot scroll. The king had been in his study for an hour already, the solace he chosen in being alone instead of being around the guards and clumsy servants not lighting his mood the least. In fact he only scowled at the same two sentences he had stared at for the last ten minutes when he threw down the parchment in disgust, leaning back in his chair and frowning at the doorway to the study. No one had come nor gone through that doorway since he had stalked inside, instructing no one to enter unless the entire kingdom was going down in flames or the castle was crumbling down around him. Even then he most likely wouldn't go out into the open.

For some reason or another he silently begged for someone to come through that doorway -- anyone -- to bother him so that he could release the tension that was making his shoulders and the back of his neck hurt. It was unfortunate that he had gotten rid of one of the only useful servants in the castle that could ease the tension off of his shoulders and the only other person that would have been able to help him was Kaya; she was not inside the castle at the moment either. The damnable woman was off at the lakeside, obviously more then relieved to be out of the castle and away from him then he was to have her and his child out of his way. At least he didn't have to look at her and wonder if she was planning to stab him in the back when he wasn't looking; what she did at the Hylia didn't bother him so much that she was out of his reach.

Which only deepened his already sour mood once he began to dwell upon it again. Three guards hadn't been enough to control two women and a child at any end, not when there were so many escape routes and ways to get out through the Hylia alone. If the guards did what they had been instructed to -- and would be reinforced by Impa once they were clear of the Market, if he didn't put it past her to use some of her Sheikan magic to prove her point -- then it would be _hours_ before they realized anything was amiss and were missing a queen if not a princess as well. Checking up upon the three would only be done every two and a half hours and on behalf of the child-princess, secretly of course as the king had promised that the guards wouldn't bother them while they were still at the lakeside. That was what he had told the guards protecting the three, that he only had them check upon Zelda in case anything happened to her; in truth it was to make sure that Kaya didn't escape out of the country.

He didn't put it past Kaya that she would use this opportunity to escape or at least plan on mapping out the lake by memory for later use. Although she hadn't been to the lake in quite a number of years -- for some reason or another she hadn't shared with him -- Kaya still knew the basic layout of the land surrounding the Hylia, if the natural order of things and the Zora hadn't changed anything to the landscape. The picnic would give her the time she needed to refresh her memory and to find a way to escape, if she didn't do so today. That had been the factor that he had used to keep Kaya from leaving the confines of the castle and to keep Zelda inside without having to justify himself properly. If the damn Sheikah hadn't cornered him like that then queen and princess wouldn't have ever left if he had anything to do with it.

The king closed his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose. Maybe having the three out of the castle was a good thing, considering there wasn't a need to have them watched all the time and the guards could do other duties then to babysit two grown women and a child. He normally didn't need to worry about Kaya so much as the queen often was out of his way except on occasion when the two were sitting on the thrones together or was at the table to have a meal in silence. Impa, on the other hand, was one he had to worry about the most; Sheikah were good at hiding things and keeping things secret and for their strength not only through their magic but their muscles as well. There were many under the employ of the Royal Family but few actually worked this close to the direct line to the throne like she did. What she told the queen and the princess-heir concerned him to no great end and if he wasn't worried about the retribution of kicking Impa out into the Market, he would have done it a long time ago.

The sound of the door slamming open caught him off guard, the king snapping his eyes open and putting his hands onto the desk in front of him to steady himself so he wouldn't fall off the chair in surprise. He had expected a guard to have bursted in like that with news that Ganondorf or a handfull of Gerudo were still in the Market yet the last person he expect to see was a wide-eyed Sheikah with a paled face. Or that was what Impa looked like as she came up to the desk with a look of worry on her face with Zelda in her arms, obviously in worse condition then Impa was and didn't bother to hide it. The girl had her head laying on her caretaker's shoulder, her eyes and face puffy most likely from crying, and she was clinging to her like it was a life or death matter. The child-heir's own emotions played out rather naturally but Impa's appeared to be rather feigned, like she had just pasted the worry and deep frown on her face right before she had burst through the door. He couldn't tell feigned or realistic emotions on Sheikahs, none the slightest.

"What's the meaning of this?" He demanded, first glaring at the Sheikah then stealing a rather heated look at his daughter. "Why are you back from the Hylia so soon?"

"It's Kaya, she....she was swimming in the lake before going under. I....believe she drowned," Impa started slowly, putting Zelda onto the ground so that she could stand. The child clung to the Sheikah's leg instead, all but looking at her father in fear of something that he couldn't put his finger on. "When I went to go after her I couldn't get to her fast enough and couldn't see her body through the darkened water. I think she had a cramp after swimming and didn't have enough time to get to shallow water. We came back here as soon as possible but...."

"_What_!?!" The king screeched out, standing up rather quickly and leaning forwards to glare at the two in front of him even more. He _knew_ something like his would happen and the absence of Kaya was odd, even if Impa and Zelda had been the only ones to enter the study while the queen had gone off somewhere else in the castle. "What makes you think that she just _drowned_? She most likely _escaped_ to the Domain or elsewhere. I seriously doubt someone like her would just drown from a _cramp_."

"She did drown, sire. If you don't believe me have the lake searched and the Zora questioned." Impa's frown only grew deeper, putting a hand on top of Zelda's head to calm her down slightly. The king's own frown deepened as well, his mind spinning of possible ways that Kaya could get out of Hyrule not only through the Hylia but also the Domain as well. He didn't put it past the Zora to have more then two ways to the lakeside and not only that, there was at least one way to get into the Valley from the lake. He knew that Impa didn't think he was stupid in believing that Kaya _drowned_ in the first place and his facial expression showed it more then any words shouted at her could. He also didn't put it past the Zora to be able to hide her in the spots in the Domain that they considered sacred, if they did at all.

"Where's the guards that were with you?" He demanded coarsely. "Did you even tell _them_ that she was missing?"

"Yes, Zelda went to them and got them." Her voice was now starting to sound urgent, which it should have done at the very beginning instead of sounding as though the two of them were talking about daily going-ons at the castle. "They didn't appear like they wanted to go into the lake to see if they could find her and we came back as fast as we could so a search could be done."

"You didn't go directly to the ones that could quite easily look at the bottom of the lake?" The king stared rather coldly at her, letting that idea sink in before she realized that she could have gone straight to the Domain to see if anything had floated down to the Zora. In fact Impa _had_ considered this possibility in order to stall for time but if she had she would have had to explain herself to the Zora King and the true day's events to him. The guards wouldn't have allowed her to take Zelda with her and she wouldn't dare put the safety of the princess-heir in their hands like that; having either Zelda with her, the guards, or even both of them would have ruined the story she had set up in lieu of what actually happened.

"That hadn't been a thought at the time and the guards wouldn't have listened if we took a detour to the Domain. They wanted to get back to you for orders." Impa narrowed her eyes and pushed her lips together. She was starting to become annoyed at him and it was starting to show on her face the more she stood in front of him. The king didn't bother with actually taking in the changing expression that was on her face, instead sitting back down onto his chair and folding his hands onto his lap. He had a feeling that she hadn't told him a complete lie about that as the guards took direct orders from _him_ unless otherwise directed and wouldn't bother going to any place other then back to the castle to see what he would do about the situation.

This would also have given Kaya any extra time to escape further away from Hyrule and he _had_ said he'd give her two hours to get as far away from the country as she could before he sent guards after her. Mentally he calculated that he'd send his own guards searching for her in two hours starting right when he sat back down and this was not accounting for the time it took to actually _search_ for her at the Hylia by Impa, to get the guards and see what they would do about it, come back to the castle, and to get the king informed. That gave her an estimated four and a half to five hours head start ahead of any castle guards that the king sent, plenty of time for her to have gotten lost, confused, tired, and in a position she was easily found. The two hours _he_ had was more then enough to make sure that the Zora searched the entire water system in their control and report back with their findings.

"We don't have a lot of time! We need to recover her body before it's found by someone that doesn't know better!" The urgency in Impa's voice returned and the king found it amusing that she still believed the man in front of her believed _her_ although he assumed Zelda hadn't taken part of this plot judging by the crying and the lost look on her face. Her father wasn't as cold-hearted as he believed himself and wouldn't actually have the child go through seeing her mother dragged to the dungeons where she would only lose the woman again. No, he would allow Impa's lie to fester in her mind and not say anything; that much he would do for her at this time.

"I'll send the guards out to the Domain and get the Zora's involved. You," he pointed directly at the Sheikah, "I want you to keep out of the way and take care of the kid. If what you say is true then I don't want to put her through any worse then she already did."

Impa's impatient expression didn't change on her face although her eyes spoke louder then the 'thank you' she muttered before bowing and taking the girl's hand to leave. Those crimson eyes told him that she was grateful at least that he wouldn't put his daughter through any more trauma for the time being and would at least go along with the story she had given him. Somehow he knew she wasn't believed judging by the tone of voice she carried, the Sheikah and girl exiting the study as the king stood up and sighed. For some reason or another that he couldn't explain now or even years later, he felt a slight emptiness that hadn't been there before Impa had burst in or the reason why he spoke a bit more kindly towards the two. There had been an expectation that Kaya would have tried to escape at some point but he didn't expect it to be so soon like this, not when Zelda was so young and their marriage just the same. He found that he didn't truly care if Kaya was there or not, just as long as his heir wasn't affected long-term.

He stood there for five minutes just staring at the open door before walking around the desk and headed towards the hallway. He would have to get a small group of guards together to go to the Domain and hopefully the Zora would be able to check for any signs that Kaya was there or at least her body. If not then that would give him a good reason to send out _more_ guards around the borders of Hyrule and beyond it if need be; Kaya wasn't stupid enough to stay within sight of the castle, even if she were to stay as close as Kakariko or as far away as the Fortress. Even _then_ she wouldn't stay in Hyrule for long, most likely to get supplies and find a way to get out of the land before she was found out; there _were_ a half dozen ways to get out just from Kakariko _alone_ that he knew of.

Still, there was an itch at the back of his mind as he turned right and went down the corridor, an itch that something was still wrong with this whole situation that he didn't like. It was an itch that he would never see Queen Kaya again.

_Beyond_ series and all original characters © Ameera Mae Laramie

_Legend of Zelda_ games, characters, and places © Nintendo and their original creator


	15. Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen:

Kaya hadn't been in the Human World for more then two and a half hours yet it seemed like an eternity to her. Even now, as she looked around her with a mixture of boredom and wonder, time seemed to slow down around her. Maybe it was her fear that something would go horribly wrong and she'd have to go back to her own World or this was just a delusion of her mind and she was believing she was elsewhere but still in Hyrule. That somehow the Royal Guards would come marching in to drag her back to the castle where they believed she belonged. It was not a half hour over the king's promised time he'd allow her to have a head start and here she was, sitting calmly as possible as though nothing was wrong when she should have been running out the door and away as far as she could without looking back. That wasn't possible now, not unless she found an excuse to get out of there without looking like she was running away.

On the inside, however, Kaya was much worse off then she visibly appeared. Shaken from her experience through the void between Worlds, she wanted to break down and cry for the things she had to leave behind. It took all of her known willpower not to do that in front of complete strangers; when she was along she would do that but not now. She also feared for Zelda's safely but not as much if Impa wasn't there to take care of her and to make sure she was safe where she was, as safe as she could be. Kaya's regret was that she had to 'disappear' like that in front of her daughter but it couldn't be helped -- one more moment in that forsaken land and she would have had to leave by another means, even if she were to be on the run for the rest of her life. With the pendent at least she had the option of safely returning back to Hyrule in a discrete location where guards wouldn't actively be searching for her and where she could hide as a commoner for a while. Even with that in mind and at her fingertips, Kaya wasn't about to use it -- no, she had to stay where she was, even if it meant death.

Now she faced one of the challenges of her new life: things in this World would be hard, perhaps more then she expected them to and, with great difficulty, would learn how to live among the people of this World. Kaya sat in a wooden chair in front of a large desk that sat in a medium-sized room, arms crossed over her chest and eyes staring straight forwards. Her few belongings sat next to her on the floor, the only things she had left from her life in Hyrule and her home. She was already uncomfortable in a room such as this, where there were few things lining the walls and even fewer objects to brighten it up from the dimly-lit building she was in. It made her think of her husband's study in the castle -- even thinking about it made her shudder and wince on the inside -- but at least it didn't give off the aura that something bad was about to happen. Here she felt safe, safer then she would have been if she had stayed behind.

Everything in this World was vastly different from Hyrule and a lot louder as well; just from the small area she had been in reminded her of the Market before a festival. The sounds of the World around her scared her but not enough to tell her to turn around and run in the other direction; no matter where she went, it seemed, she would hear the noise of dozens of things going at the same time. The man that had gotten her down from the tree had only laughed at her curiosity when he had lead Kaya from the park, pointing a few things out to her as he took her to a long, paved road that went down one way and slightly curved and ended at another. Kaya had lightly stepped onto it as he took her across the street, to a contraption he called a 'car'.

Kaya had stared at it for several minutes even when he opened the door to what seemed like the back of it. The notion that she was supposed to get into this thing horrified her and she voiced her option as such; the reply of which clearly gave her the impression that the only other option she had would have been to brave the streets alone and without any help from anyone that clearly would think her a raving mad woman. Kaya got in despite her fears, the man placing a rather strange belt around half of her upper body and her entire waist, pinning her down into the seat. She had protested this rather loudly, feeling it was something she did not need and growled to him to take it off of her. He had told her that if she did not wear it, a charge would be brought against her for it; according to him, it was a 'federal law' that was enforced. Kaya had been quiet for only a second afterward before, again, voicing her opinion on something that she thought was stupid but instead of replying with words, he merely shrugged and slammed the door in her face.

During the long travel to wherever he was taking her, the queen gaped at the World just beyond the glass of the car. People walked along the sides of the road in front of rather large, metal and glass buildings, talking into small devices pressed into their ears. Some were even walking dogs on multi-colored ropes or pushing carts with babies inside of them or had bags with names of something stitched on the side of them. Each person wore clothing in many shades, shapes, and styles; women wore pants and dresses, men wore baggy pants that went well below their bottoms. Kaya sniffed at that sight, taking her gaze away from the sides of the road with a slight frown. In her World women only wore pants if they worked as laborers or were supposed to per their customs and men did not have their pants falling down to their knees. That was more then rude.

The metal buildings she saw rose up above towards the heavens, so much so that she had to turn her neck upwards to even seen when these buildings stopped and the sky started. The man had somehow taken notice of her curiosity from where he was sitting at the front of the car, telling her that the glass and metal buildings were called 'skyscrapers' and were normally used for businesses and offices. Kaya didn't pretend to know what he was talking about, even when she pointed to several smaller, more mortar and brick buildings that the car went past and he attempted to explain that those were indoor shops and banks -- although she assumed that they were similar in fashion to the small shops that was in the Market. After five minutes of asking small questions, Kaya went quiet to just stare out of the window to take in some of the sights in. If this was the way one places was like, what was the rest of this World like?

When the car had stopped at one point she had assumed they were there already and had started to attempt to take off the belt in order for her to get out of the car. The stranger had looked into the mirror attached to the front window at her, warning not to get out since they were no where near where they were supposed to be yet. Kaya had voiced her concerns about what he was doing or at least trying to do, keeping most of her words under her breath as possible. Whether or not he heard them or not she couldn't tell, even when he pointed to something outside of the car's front window. When she leaned forwards and peered out she saw something that dangled from a rather thick wire strung between two metal poles on each side of the road; there were two of them by the looks of it, one facing them and the other facing the other side of the road. The one facing them had a red light at the top of it, perhaps indicating that cars and the people inside of it had to stop. She had no time to ask what the device was because the red light went out and the green light on the bottom turned green, the car moving forwards once again.

Once the car had stopped at where it was supposed to be at, the man had gotten out and opened the door for her; he didn't give her much of a chance to bolt to the unknown and hardly looked pleased at bringing her to the final destination. Kaya hadn't been pleased then either, looking the building they were at with a sour expression and nervousness shaking her insides. The man had told her that she needed to stay as close to him as possible so she wouldn't wander off to get into trouble she didn't intend on getting into. Whatever that had meant she didn't know and didn't bother to actually find out herself as he lead her inside without much of a word to her or to anyone else; the kindest thing he had really done for her today so far was hold the door for her. Once inside Kaya froze up even when she was pushed forwards by the man and told to hurry up; all eyes seemed to be on her when she entered and followed the man back towards the office she was now in. There were possibly a few mutterings about her as she went past but she, and the man, ignored them; there was no reason for her to be concerned with the Humans that she quite possibly would never see again.

Now she sat there with her body positioned in a way that she could easily get up if she wanted to walk out the door and never see the inside of this place again while also keeping her body in place so that it appeared she was dignified without showing her true emotions. The man had come and gone several times since they had arrived, often muttering something to himself while jotting down some information on a pad of paper on his desk he had placed there on his third trip in. By the time he had finally come in for the last time Kaya prayed to whatever Goddess was listening that this meant she would be free of him soon and she could get on with whatever life she had left for the next ten years. Oh how wrong she was.

"I'm going to be asking you a few questions basically for legality sake," the man said as he finally sat down behind the desk, picking up the writing tool he had put down on the pad of paper the last time he had scribbled something down on it. "First off I need your name. Your _full _name."

"Queen Kaya Mae Romano," she responded simply. If he was going to play such a game like this then so could she. "I would like the pleasure of yours as well. After all I don't want to refer to you as 'It' now can I?"

"Kurt Lang, captain of this place." He scowled at the paper after he finished writing Kaya's name down. "Let's keep the questions directed at your for now. Where were you born?"

"Supposedly Kakariko village but I'm not sure," Kaya responded. "I was raised by Sheikahs there until the age of thirteen."

"How old are you now?" Kurt raised his eyes slightly to her, pushing his lips together in a thin line.

"Twenty-eight and my birth date is September fourteenth." She leaned forwards slightly with a small, rather forced smile. "I'm also about five foot-two and weigh one hundred and eight."

The man looked up at her fully in what seemed like the first time since they had met, appearing slightly peeved that she had given him the information rather quickly. Whether or not he needed all that information, Kurt jotted it down on the paper anyways, truth or not. If he wanted to get rid of her as she wanted to leave then he would believe and write down any information she told him. To Kaya's current knowledge there was no reason to believe that any information she gave to him could get back to Hyrule without a magical way of transporting back to her World. What she told him -- told _anybody_-- couldn't be traced back home; for that she was partially thankful.

"Well _that _puts most of the official questions out of the way," Kurt responded in an almost pleased manner. That just confirmed her suspicions. "Who were your parents?"

Kaya paused for a moment just staring at him. Why was her _parents _important to him? She hadn't known them at all outside the stories the old Sheikahs had told her and they had been few and far between. What little she knew of them existed in faint memories of those stories about poor commoners leaving a small babe on the steps of Kakariko and not even looking back. Her lower lip quavered a bit but that was the only outward emotion she let show.

"O don't know. I believe they were killed when I was a baby," Kaya said, keeping an eye on the writing table on the desk. "The Sheikah who raised me only told me that my parents were poor farmers and couldn't raise a child, or so they claim. I can't be sure as they've claimed more then Hylian commoner in me."

"Who killed them?" It really didn't matter who did the nasty deed in Kurt's eyes; the law _he _served under couldn't do anything in regards to Hylian law. He was merely curious as to what was in this woman's past. Oh he'd pretend to write down what she said but it wouldn't go on official record.

"I don't know, I told you I was an orphan." Kaya felt irritated at having to repeat herself but she did it to humor him anyways. She took note that he was writing _something _down but it was slow strokes and not the fast writing he had been using when she had given him other information. "The Geurdos, or so I was told. Why I don't know, maybe because of their thieving nature. What they wanted with poor farmers I don't know. They were probably better off trying to steal from Lon Lon Ranch instead."

"The who?" Kurt looked confused with a slightly raised eyebrow. She sighed, rubbing a hand over her eyes several times before staring at him intently. Normally she could see the aura's around people but this one held none that she could see with her own vision. The man was unreadable, something she didn't like.

"They are a race of people -- _thieves _-- who have made their home in the Desert just outside of Hyrule. They are lead by Ganondorf." She spat the name out while trying to maintain a steady expression without faultering like she had for a second earlier. Just her tone alone would suggest she didn't like him.

"I see." Kurt put his writing instrument down and leaned back in his chair. "I'm done with my official questions for now so if you have any for me, nows the time to ask them."

She blinked, surprised that the line of questioning towards her was over already and she was allowed to be asking the questions now. Kaya had assumed that there would have been dozens more that would have attempted to go into every little detail about her life, where she was from, and why and how she had come there. Now the questioning was turned over to her to ask of him and she didn't know where to being; there was so many to ask. But didn't he _want _to get rid of her, like his tone implied? Or was this just a stall for time for something worse? It was best to see what kind of game he was playing at to see if she should bolt for the door and not look back or try to feel more comfortable then she was.

"Hmm," she started. "Are all Humans as rude as you were before?"

"Worse probably." Kurt grinned like he had told a joke that she didn't understand. "I'm not really a rude person, my line of work demands me to be a bit harsh with people. If I came across as such, my apologies."

"Taken note of," Kaya said with a shrug. "Why did you say that you didn't believe me then say you did?"

"Surprised, really," Kurt answered truthfully. "See, your Majesty, people in _this _World don't go around calling themselves Hylians, Sheikah, or any other race in Hyrule unless they're playing some sort of game. Or they're really _crazy _in the head." He raised both hands in defense when the queen scowled at him. "Not saying _you _are crazy, I can tell by your ears alone that you're telling the truth and _far _from Human or playing some sort of live-action game. It's just that some people take it a few steps further."

"Take _what _a few steps further?" Kaya had a deep feeling that this conversation somehow connected to the one they had several hours earlier and _dreaded _the connection which gave her the impression that these two Worlds were connected by _something_. "Is it...?"

"If it's what you're thinking then there's more then a possibility that it's true." He clasped his hands onto his lap, the slightly wide-eyed and angered look on Kaya's face confirming that he was right. "I'm glad that you remembered our short conversation from earlier. You could say that the races you mentioned were the creation of a man in Japan, a country to the east of this one."

"Excuse me?" Kaya breathed, feeling her face flush with anger. What exactly was this man _implying _at? "My World doesn't exist _at all_?"

"Exactly my point, it doesn't," he said, leaning forwards towards the desk. "At least it doesn't exist in _this _World. There is this long-running game series that was created called _Legend of Zelda_, starting about twenty-odd years ago. The games have been rather popular around the World and there have been new games created recently. It's all in there: Hyrule, the races you mentioned, just about _everything_. I don't know if it's a detailed history of your home or if it's all true, most people don't give it a second thought other then it's a work of fiction.

"Where _you _come in, I don't know. From what I know there just isn't enough information from the source to discredit you, for all intent and purposes the games weren't designed to include every last detail. I could be wrong though." Kurt put his hands onto the desk, now fully aware that he had the queen's attention. "I believe the creator of the series had some prior knowledge about Hyrule and based the games off of _that_. How or why he chose to use your daughter, I don't know. What I do know is that there _is _a connection between your World and this World."

All of the color drained rom Kaya's face as she dropped whatever belongings she had onto the floor. Kurt had confirmed her fear, that being in a World _she _didn't know of knew of _hers _and quite possibly knew more then that. It was now well past the two hours her husband had given her to flee and she was sitting there like she had no care in the world. He _had _been stalling for time so that someone from Hyrule would come to claim here; if there was why weren't they barging into the room and dragging her away in chains? Was this a clever ruse or a bunch of lies? Or was she just overreacting and nothing was wrong, that she had actually left her World behind?

"What exactly are you trying to tell me?" She managed to ask when she found the voice to speak. "That someone from Hyrule can come into this World other then the way I came in?"

"Not that I'm currently aware of," Kurt said with a more serious tone then he had used only moments earlier. Kaya now saw a faint grey hue around the man, fading in and out of her known vision; it had been obscured by her own fear of what would happen to her. Now that she could see it Kaya could understand what it meant, that this man was at least truthful in his words. How truthful she couldn't be sure until she knew him better. "I don't know what to say to you that will make you believe me. In all seriousness I do believe that the man who created the games only saw a glimpse of Hyrule before he made the games. How he did it I don't know nor pretend to know. Maybe he never went to Hyrule in the first place, maybe some how he made the games up on whim not knowing that what he created was, in fact, _real -- _stranger things have happened. In your World is there things that you can not explain?"

The things that she couldn't explain were often attributed to the will of the Three Goddesses or by some other sort of magic, or so she had told herself many times. Even then she couldn't explain away certain things in her World that seemed impossible to credit to one source. If someone had told her years ago that there were other Worlds in which living, breathing things lived in Kaya would have thought that it was a crazy idea and would have never given it another thought. But here she was, sitting in front of a man in a World she didn't know, with a Sheikah artifact that could take her between Worlds and beyond while talking almost casually about a man she didn't know that knew of her World and had created something for everyone else to know. It was absurd to think about it and she wanted more information, more details about this and how Kurt was taking this like he delt with it every day without sending her off to a place where the crazy persons go.

"I can not explain everything in my World," she admitted. "But I just don't feel comfortable knowing what you've told me. Did you do it to unsettle me?"

"In no way did I mean for you to be uncomfortable," Kurt responded. "You wanted to know, and I told you. You have nothing to fear, whatever you were afraid of in Hyrule can't reach you here."

"How do I know I can trust you?" Kaya only asked the question to put the last of her fears aside, what little else there was. "How do I know that someone from your World won't go into Hyrule?"

She knew that she could trust Impa's word that there were only four pendents that had been created in Hyrule and she had one of them with her; the other two that she remembered the Sheikah telling her about were still in Hyrule, one of them still close to her husband's hand. If there was any less knowledge about how she knew the Zora king wouldn't give up something that had been handed to him for safe keeping -- and she had seen people no more brighter then a fool not give up something without a fight or the right person to give it to -- then she would have been even more worried then she was now. If _Impa_ didn't know where the fourth pendent then it would be as hard as anything to find it, Sheikah or not. Those two Kaya did not worry about as she had no reason to fear that anyone shy of a Sheikah knew what they were for.

But what made her ask Kurt if she could trust him, if she knew that someone wouldn't go from this World into hers, was the simple fact that she had _told_ him that she had gotten there through the pendent and had _shown_ him it and that opened up more then one way to get back into Hyrule. Other then a few defensive maneuvers and little else in the way of fighting, Kaya was no fighter; anyone could overcome her without even trying. There were no guards here to protect her, no Impa to give instructions to through a well-placed glance or expression, no nothing to save her from a force much stronger then herself. _Anyone_ could overcome her to force her to use the pendent to go back to Hyrule so that she could be locked in the dungeon for what remained of her life -- in the king's eyes Kaya was now a deserter of the crown, a runaway queen that no longer had a home. If anyone could see the potential to get some rupees or gold out of this it would be not only the person sitting across from her but anyone under his employ.

Not only that but what if there was another pendent in _this_ World? Impa had told her that she had sent someone that she trusted into another World and what made Kaya think that this person wasn't in the same World as she was? It wouldn't be just coincidence that _two_ people from the same World found each other in another one; would that be destiny calling? Or the beginning to a prophecy that only Sheikah could hope to bring together? Kaya had to brace herself in case one of the two possibilities came together and she surely wouldn't be disappointed in either outcome; to her it was just another challenge she had to face sooner rather then later.

"Trust has to be earned, so shall it be. That answers your first question." Kurt smiled rather deviously, a sign that it didn't bode well for Kaya. "As for your second, excluding yourself and Calista, there's no one else that could work those pendents properly. Oh there are others that know Hyrule _does_ exist but I seriously doubt that they can _get_ there outside what the two of you have."

"Wha..._what_?" She stuttered, feeling what little color had returned to her face drain completely away. The notion of the one Impa had mentioned had only been something she thought of at the last second and it was the last of the two things she thought of that could possibly happen in her wildest dreams. Was it the same person Impa told her of? "Who's Calista?"

"I'll let you meet her, I'm sure that you have some talking to do," he answered, leaning forwards as he pressed a button on a strange-looking object Kaya hadn't paid much attention to. What sounded like static came from somewhere inside of it and a voice mumbled what seemed like a very tired 'Hello' from within. "Could you send Calista in please?"

"Sure," the tired voice responded then the device clicked off a second later when Kurt took his finger off of the button. Kaya tilted her head slightly to the side, confused as to what this contraption was and who this 'Calista' was; it was hard enough to understand the current situation as it was without having to restort in meeting someone else she didn't know.

Kurt seemed to noticed this right away, a small, more genuine smile replacing the devious one he had. "You say you are Hylian, correct? And you also said something about Sheikah, right?"

"Yes, I did mentioned both of those facts." It didn't help her any if he repeated to her what she had already stated several times already. "I fail to see how this pertains to me as I already know _what_ I am and _what_ I've spoken of."

"Just making sure," he responded as the door to the office opened mere seconds after he said those words. Kaya gave him a lasting glare before turning her rather confused and angered gaze towards the opening door. If the trip to the Human World had gone by slowly this door opening seemed to take just as long; perhaps it was her own heart beating fast and her fears that was making it seem like it took the door being opened longer then it should.

Once it had fully opened, the queen had to put a hand over her mouth to keep herself from showing a rather large smile and to suppress an overly relieved laugh. Standing in the doorway and wearing almost the exact same uniform as Kurt stood a woman that resembled a Sheikah so perfectly that Kaya had to look her up and down several times to make sure that Impa hadn't come into the Human World with her. She had the same silverish hair hair that Impa had yet it was longer and tied into a bun at the back of her head; the same piercing eyes that she knew all Sheikah had glossed over the queen twice without much of a look of recognition. She was just as tone as Impa was but was somewhat slimmer and had a alertness that she had not noticed in anyone else she had met in Hyrule, including Sheikah.

"You wanted to see me, sir?" She asked when she had looked at Kaya the second time then turned her head towards Kurt. Kaya stood up when she felt that her legs wouldn't give out on her and she placed her hand back to her side; it was pure relief that she found someone that at least resembled a Sheikah in body.

"Kaya this is Calista, perhaps the most valuable officer I have had in a long time and you understand why." He had that smile plastered on his lips again and this time it didn't make Kaya feel like he was trying to hide something. If anything it expressed what she was trying to keep hidden until she knew if Calista wasn't one of those 'crazies' Kurt had briefly mentioned earlier. "As you can see she is part of the Sheikah race and isn't, ah....well, you know what I've said quite well without me repeating it."

"I don't suppose you have to really explain how you know of the Sheikah," Calista said without even giving Kaya a third look. "Those games don't do Hyrule justice in reality, however they surprisingly go along a part of the Destiny as my land."

"I wouldn't know, Calista, as I've never really heard of these games until only a couple of hours ago." She smiled lightly, hoping that what she was about to say next wouldn't get the same reaction as Kurt's but she didn't bet on it. "In fact I didn't think anyone knew of Hyrule outside of our World."

While Calista didn't give her full attention to the queen, what was said _did_ get her attention better then expected. There was a bit of uncertainty in those crimson eyes of hers but it was masked as pure amazement that someone would mention Hyrule in the same sentence as 'our World'. How the rest of this would play out Kaya didn't know but she had to maintain a bit of the controls herself so that she wouldn't spit out all of her information in one sentence without first seeing if this was true or not.

"Don't imply anything, ma'am," Calista spat without difficulty, slightly narrowing her eyes at the woman standing in front of her. Like Kaya had earlier the Sheikah had gotten defensive when speaking about Hyrule and that was a point towards her actually being from there. "You can not be Hylian at all."

"I guess not all Sheikah are alike, hmm?" There was a bit of amusement in her voice when she spoke that. "I don't blame you for having doubts, as I don't know how long ago Impa has sent you into this World through a certain necklace she may have given you. It has to be at least six and a half years at least, maybe more, since you last saw Hyrule."

If _that_ didn't get Calista's full attention then nothing else would have. Her head snapped fully towards the Hylian, eyes more wide then they had been narrowed, and any Sheikah sereneness gone before she knew that she had lost it. Impa had not once mentioned this to Kaya in the years that the two of them had known each other until today and Kaya suspected from the surprise on Calista's face that she knew of this. Kaya had all but _forced_ Impa to tell her where the other three pendents were and it was only mentioned to quell a fearing queen's mind; this small reaction was more proof that there were Sheikah in the other Worlds and that Kaya could trust this one if Impa did.

"I don't know how you got that information or where you got it from, but no one knows personally unless I've told them or it was forced out of someone that knew." Calista gave a rather cold and menacing look towards Kurt, who shook his head to tell her that he had told Kaya nothing of the sort. Not that it mattered to a Sheikah but it only made Kaya force her own self to tell Calista who she was.

"Do _not_ assume that the Queen of Hyrule forces _anything_ out of someone unless she is told of it." Kaya pulled back her hair enough to reveal her pointed ears and the earrings in her ears made of ivory and gold in the shape of the Royal Family's seal before she let down her hair. That was enough to show anyone that she was of Hylian descent and no one outside the Royal Family could afford pure ivory and gold and be able to use the Royal seal. If Calista had not looked over her with mere glances she would also have seen that while Kaya's riding clothing were plain, it still also had the Royal Family's crest embroidered in gold thread not only on the bottom of her dress but also on her belt as well. "I do _not_ need to tell you how I know of things nor do I need someone to tell me that Imply things that they think I don't know anything about!"

Calista now saw what she had missed in the looks she had given Kaya earlier, face paling to the shade Kaya's had been not even ten minutes earlier, dropping down to one knee with a horrified look on her face. She held her head down so that she would not look at the queen at any way other then her feet, her fingertips touching the ground. That was more then what Kurt would have given her and it totally confirmed that Calista was who she and Kurt said she was. It also confirmed as to how Kurt eventually believed what Kaya had originally told him when they had first met. Although this respect towards her made her feel uncomfortable inside the castle, here it did not disturb her one bit -- at least she could allow it one last time before she formally threw away her title for good.

"I am deeply sorry your Highness, I did not know," Calista whispered in a low voice, her face rising up once Kaya muttered it was okay to raise her head. "If I may know, what is a Royal Family member doing outside of the palace walls? It is not safe for you to be here."

"I no longer desired to live inside our Realm, as Time and Destiny seem to think otherwise as well. Might I ask _why_ you are outside of Hyrule?" Kaya mused that over, wondering if it had something to do with any of Impa's prophecy's or something more devious then that.

"The great Impa told me many years ago of a prophecy that will happen in fifteen years time," she started. "She told me that it would be necessary to have a Sheikah in this realm to protect the one that will be the focus of a great battle that will come between the two Worlds. I have been here for several years now waiting for the first signs of the battle but it has not arrived yet."

"Who will start this battle?" Kaya inquired, dreading the answer that may come.

"A man hailing from the far desert that is on the other side of Hyrule. He is wearing black armor and is riding a black steed, behind him is a dark cloud that follows him." Calista now looked worried even more so. "With this dark cloud comes confusion, disappear, and destruction."

"Ganondorf. I knew that man was horrid from the moment that he stepped into the throne room," the queen muttered., sitting back down in the chair while taking in deep breaths to try to keep herself calm. When she looked towards Kurt, who most likely knew of this before hand and wasn't the least bit confused, or was masking it well, she did not smile at him to play like he had heard nothing. "No longer is this realm safe. I had a feeling something was wrong even when Impa explained to me."

"I can't explain how it works, Kaya, but unless Calista sees the signs there's no need to worry about it," he said in a rather calm voice. "You probably feel like you haven't left anything behind when you came to this World but whatever the distance between both Worlds is, we _will _be warned if something _does_ happen."

"Your Majesty? Captain?" Calista asked before Kaya could say anything in retort to Kurt. When both looked in her direction she now was in a standing position, brushing off her pants before looking directly at the queen.

"Yes, what?" She asked rather irritably.

"He is right, there's nothing to worry about now or ever. There _is_ a ray of hope that shines through the darkness. A child of fifteen, who is of both the Hylian World and of the Human World and of which will be of a person that is half Human, half Hylian, and has the blood of the Sheikah running through her veins, will come and take in the man from the desert through a Sword of Legend. Before she conquers the coming evil she must overcome her obstacles that fall into her path. She must understand the problems that she faces." Calista lowered her gaze to the floor. "That is all that I can tell you, the great Impa has sworn me to secrecy the exact prophecy before it starts."

"How in all of the hells do you know this?" Kaya stared at the Sheikah for a moment before realizing the stupidity in her own question. If she was talking about a _Sheikah_ prophecy then she would know it better then anyone else.

"Everything goes as Time, and Destiny dictates, your Majesty. I can not tell you more then that." Calista must have realized the error of the question as well, a playing smile on her lips as she turned to Kurt. "Now that things have settled slightly, might I ask where her Majesty will be staying for the time being?"

It was a sheer jump from the conversation she had been involved in between both the Human and the Sheikah, Kaya had to pause and blink to shift gears within this turn in conversation. At the beginning she had assumed she would find her own way in the World once any and all questions were completed but now it seemed like things had changed since then. Kurt looked at Calista more closely then sighed, putting his face into his hands and shook his head; there appeared to be a conflict as to where Kaya would be staying now and probably for the next ten years. Neither of the three seemed to pose any ideas as to what may happen next or who was going where, the spinning of Time the only echo inside the room.

_Beyond_ series and all original characters © Ameera Mae Laramie

_Legend of Zelda_ games, characters, and places © Nintendo and their original creator


	16. Chapter 15

Chapter Fifteen:

The ten days had passed after the time spent at the Hylia were the longest and the most eventful in terms of searches and rumors. The days had gone slowly and stretched out into the wee hours of night; had anything else happened at the lakeside then the ten days wouldn't have seemed so long. It was nothing short of a miracle the days afterward had seemingly started to run as normal, as though Time itself had finished weeping for something that had been lost.

No more then an hour had passed when the riders had galloped back to the palace when rumors had already started as to where the queen had gone off to. It had started with the Gerudo kidnapping her, since their leader and a small band of them had been seen in the Market the same day the queen, the princess-heir, and the guards had left the confines of the castle-town. This gave into this rumor if any of the Royal Family left the comforts of the township without a legion of soldiers behind them; with only three guards and a Sheikah attendent, it would have been easier to have taken the queen away with the Hylia so close to the entrance to the desert.

Others claimed Kaya had run away when no one was looking and was somewhere else now, hiding as a commoner in a far away town in another land. With guards combing every inch of the town, all of Hyrule, and three miles beyond the border it was easy to assume this since there were plenty of places to hide outside this range. Even the Gorons and Zora got involved in the search, going into places where the Hylian Guards could not; if the Kokiri were approached in helping the search not one of the guards said so, since there were few that went into the Woods and even fewer that came out. Whether or not they found anything was unknown until the eighth day the queen was missing when all searches were called off and the soldiers returned back without the queen. Or so the guards and king said.

On the eighth day the undertaker had been secretly commissioned to create a casket fitting Kaya's height and weight. No one outside the undertaker and gravedigger were supposed to know of this but by mid-day on the ninth day, the entirety of Hyrule knew what no one had suspected: Kaya was _dead_, or at least that was what everyone _assumed_ the next day when the casket was delivered to the castle during the mid-morning Market rush. Never in the common folks memory did the entire Market freeze like that before dusk, never had been _that_ silent when something had been delivered to the castle. That was when everyone _knew_ something was terribly wrong.

The Royal Family had been silent until the dawn of the tenth day when the guards and a "grieving" king announced that Kaya was no longer among the living and that she would be buried in Kakariko later in the day, after the noon bell tolled. In truth there was no body to bury in the graveyard, no headstone to mark where the empty grave would be since there was no way to tell that Kaya was really dead. The commoners would be able to follow the casket to the entrance to Kakariko's graveyard that day before noon, then the Royal Family would go inside and privately bury the empty casket. No one would know the difference since Kaya had never been found dead or alive and, in the king's mind, it would be wiser to do a more private search for her until otherwise noted. The less the commoners knew, the less of a chance there would be a hope they believed she was alive.

The commoners had little time to prepare for when the empty casket would be moved from the castle grounds and through the Market square. Until this day not once since the months leading after the end of the wars that broke Hyrule into pieces had the Market been empty; no merchant was selling their wares, no kids were flying kites in the square, no one was going from stall to stall looking for bargins and items. The stalls had been pushed back by merchant and buyer alike to accommodate the amount of people that lined the path from the castle to the entrance of the township. All that gathered there, from the smallest babe to the oldest grandfather, wore black and had their head down in respect for the lost queen. The casket had not even made it past the gate leading to the castle when every commoner in the township had lined up to catch a glimpse of the mourning Royal Family and to pay a small bit of respect to the departed queen.

Twenty guards were in front, leading the single horse-drawn carriage that had a simple white cloth draped over it. The guards leading the carriage glared down at the morning commoners from underneath their helmets as though they dared anyone to reach out to touch any part of the cloth, casket, or carriage. They had little reason to be there other then to make sure that the commoners did not follow the remaining Royal Family to the graveyard, keeping any secrets they had inside that very graveyard. Few paid any heed to the sour mood of the guards, tears and sobs breaking the silence of those lined on the streets. The commoners only looked up when two horses carrying Princess Zelda, her attendent, Impa, and the King rode past behind the carriage.

The princess-heir clung tightly to the Sheikah in an attempt to hold onto the last bit of comfort she had left, both riding the same horse together; the king barely acknowledged their presence and the commoners themselves received no such attention themselves. They took the stoic, emotionless stare ahead as grief and a quiet mourning, so unlike the small child in her attendant's arm's. Zelda knew her mother was gone out of her life and the only one who could protect her now was the one who held an arm around her shoulders and was watching the crowd with a weary eye. If any one person present looked closely enough they would have seen near dried tears on the Sheikah's cheeks. Otherwise both she and the king remained expressionless as the wind as they followed the carriage out of the township and through the field towards Kakariko.

The commoners tried to follow the Royal Family but five of the twenty guards that had lead the carriage remained behind to guard the entrence to the castle-town. The king and princess-heir required privacy for the burial of the casket, no commoners were allowed to disturb them for the next several hours while they put the casket into the ground. If they wanted to pay their respects to the queen the gravekeeper would allow them to do so a day after the burial; for now only the Royal Family was allowed in the graveyard.

This was watched by the Zora when it moved over the bridge and stopped at the steps of Kakariko village. Only a few of the Zora had come out of the river water and were kneeling on the ground, watching as six of the remaining guards took the casket down out of the carriage and begun to ascend the stairs into the village. Unlike the town folk the Zora did not weep for the queen nor look at the king and his daughter as they dismounted their horses and fell behind the casket. Instead they kept their eyes on Impa, who only nodded towards them as she followed closely behind Zelda; they understood that the burial was more then what it seemed but knew little else outside of it. And, unlike the townspeople, the Zora did not try to follow the last of the Royal Family into the village, even when three of the remaining guards stood as a watch at the entrance.

The villagers of Kakariko had precious little extra time to prepare for the arrival of Kaya's empty casket then the townspeople of the castle-town did but only by a half of a day. Women and children lined on side of the path to the graveyard, the other side was lined with the men; they all had their heads bowed down in respect as the casket went by them but very few wept actual tears for what was lost. Even as the crying princess-heir walked by the villagers did not cry nor look up at the king. The villagers simply fell behind Impa in two straight lines and followed behind until they were stopped by the six remaining guards left to lead. From there no one else was allowed to enter the graveyard until the next day when all of Hyrule could their respects to the queen. Where her actual grave was no one would know; flowers and other tokens would be laid at the entrance to the graveyard over the coming weeks, more tears would be shed for a queen that was never found.

Only one person in the land knew what had actually happened to the queen and she would not speak of it for years to come.

XXX

The Zora weren't the only ones that watched the casket enter Kakariko from the outside. From the direction of the desert sat three lone figures on top of three dark horses, all watching as the backs of the Royal Family moved out of their view and into the village itself. They watched as the Zora stared at the empty stairs for another ten minutes before the ones on land moved back into the water and all of the Zora present swam back towards the Domain without so much as a look behind them. It was a quiet mourning for them, one that would be rattled still in the days and weeks to come by more searching, so silent unlike the searchings that had happened over the course of eight days. If they did not find anything then what made anyone think they could find something now?

The riders on the horses sat somewhat patiently, not moving from their spot; all three were female, with the dark olive skin and long red hair of the Gerudo. They weren't there to steal or to make discord with farmers or passing merchants -- the passing of the queen did that for them -- nor were they there to disrupt the service held briefly by the Royal Family. They were only tere to watch and bring back information to their king; what he wanted with the queen was nothing short of mysterious to them and it was none of their business to question him directly. They were just there to observe until the king and princess-heir left the village and went back to the castle-town before the three riders would make their move.

"Should we follow them?" One of the riders asked, nodding towards Kakariko. "The guards wouldn't be too hard to overcome."

The rider in the middle frowned. "No, we stay here until the Royal Family leaves then we go in. There's no need for them to see us just yet."

"What are we looking for exactly?" The first question once again. She was a rather inexperienced thief and did not know that in order to keep away from being caught one must not go into the trap of allowing one to see them. "If we were to go inside...."

"No, we're _not_ going inside just yet!" The third snapped, turning in her saddle to glare at the younger Gerudo. "We're here only to observe and to look into the village as to see where they buried the queen. We are just looking for things our leader wishes to look upon."

"We try not to ask those types of questions, child, only follow the orders give." The second rider pointed in the direction of the retreating Zoras. "If you want to follow something and sneak into someplace, follow the fish. They may know something the Royal Family doesn't. Just don't get caught, it won't be _our_ fault if you get fed to the Zora's big fish."

The younger Gerudo glared at the smirks the others gave her from underneath their veils, muttering something under her breath about staying put and trying not to anger anyone. Turning back towards the village entrance the rider continued to stare at the stone steps. There they would wait until they could go about their business elsewhere then return home to report what they found to Ganondorf. Such was the life of the thieves, always waiting, always watching.

XXX

There was one other presence, a more peaceful creature, that was watching the Royal Family but this one soared easily over the rocky formation that separated Kakariko from the rest of the field instead of just watching from the outside. It had moved from deep within the Lost Woods and flew towards slowly; this creature, after all, was an ancient animal and traveling as such took time to get where it needed to go. There was no hurry to get to the village and beyond to the graveyard before the Royal Family, they nor the guards nor the Sheikah would pay an owl any mind as far as he knew. An old bird could not tell secrets to those unwilling to hear.

The owl perches on top of one of the houses inside Kakariko for rest, once it had entered the village, tilting it's head to the side as it stared at teh graveyard's entrence. To such a creature death did not need an elaborate show for the departed or, for this such owl, a display for the common folk and other assorted creatures of the land. Had the casket been otherwise occupied then there would have been no reason for it to come out of it's rest and it's home. The shifts in the pool of Time ten days earlier had awoken more then just an owl but something much large then that. It could feel the change already being made and that change would be for better or for worse.

The owl pushed itself off of the rooftop and glided towards the graveyard, being ignored by the mourning villagers and stoic guards alike. If these mere mortals knew _anything_ about what the owl knew their minds would not be able to fathom everything completely, confusion would set in and they wouldn't know how to cope with the knowledge the owl knew. The Sheikah were the closest to being able to understand and even they, in all of their secrets, prophecies, and darker magic, still could not begin to comprehend what this creature knew and saw. This was the reason why it was out there, to know for sure that the current felt had come from the source no longer in the World.

By the time the owl perched itself on a headstone as far away from the Royal Family as it could get the casket was already being lowered into the ground. It was being laid to rest into farthest spot from the graveyard entrance possible with no headstone and no way of telling that someone was buried there except for the freshly dug dirt. Even that would be forgotten once the dirt settleed and no one remembered the burial of a queen that wasn't there. There wasn't even a prayer said for the missing queen, no one muttering ones to the Three Goddesses to keep her safe from spirits of the other Worlds. The king didn't allow that, not even for the sake of his daughter.

The owl watched the gravedigger carefully as the deformed man crawled out of the hole where teh casket lay. None of the six guards that had carried the book bothered to help him out nor did they stay to help shovel the dirt into the hole. Each guard turned and walked towards the entrance with the king, princess-heir, and Sheikah remaining behind. The owl did not need to get closer to them to hear the child's sobs or see the Sheikah's glare to the sky above; only the king seemed to be in control of his emotions and did little at best. When he turned around to walk out of the graveyard the owl took notice that there was a scowl on his face, a deep set anger that radiated from his eyes. He, like the creature suspected and like the guards before him had, took no notice of the owl sitting on the headstone. Insane curses were uttered as random mumblings should anyone overhear him, the owl ignoring the king as he did the animal.

The Sheikah and princess-heir stayed at the grave a while longer, the woman picking up the weeping child and turning around to walk out and leave nothing behind. Unlike the king and guards, the Sheikah stopped several headstones away once she was out of earshot of the gravedigger, her head turning towards the owl with an amused look on her otherwise emotionless face. This action startled it; few, if any, took notice to a feathered creature sitting in silence. It had not expected the Sheikah to pause and look at it, much less look as though she knew something greater had happened. Sheikah often did and this one was no exception.

"She isn't here nor is she where the king wants everyone to believe she is," the woman told the owl. "I suppose you know that by now."

The owl blinked as the Sheikah turned and walked away from it; those words were as calm as her face was. She had kept her voice low enough and directed towards the animal so that it would not startle the child in her arms, if the child understood her words at all. It took the creature a moment to understand what those words meant and it wasn't a pleasant thought at first. If the owl had facial expressions like the humanoids in this Realm then it would have been twisted in a grimace; maybe next time it would appear as a humanoid creature so that it could contort it's face in dissatisfaction. The Sheikah knew more then she should have.

It was surprising that the Sheikah had noticed the owl since it had not been in the direct line of sight of anyone that had watched over the placement of the casket and had not called out it's presence to them. It had gone out of it's way to make itself known and the king and his guards had not taken notice of the owl, so why did the Sheikah? Did she know what had caused the waves in Time to shift like that? Or was it's mind finally turning into the creature it took as it's current shape?

The owl turned it's head bleakly around the graveyard, it's aged eyes looking over the headstones. How many of these persons who served the Royal Family -- how many generations of the Family itself -- had passed since it had last came into this place? The number of headstones did not give an accurate count to the number of bodies that were in the graves and there were several unmarked graves such as the one that had just been filled; even the gravedigger himself did not know of the secrets the graveyard possessed. The owls Realm and the Realm of these two-legged beings were different; a minute in it's own little world could be an hour in this one. How many years had passed since it had seen a queen live into her prime and beyond? It feared the princess-heir would lead down the same path as her mother if she was not careful enough and events did not play out as according to plan.

The owl remained on the headstone long enough to watch the deformed man pat down the last bit of dirt on the gravesite before he started to walk to his shack, shovel in hand. By now dusk was starting to settle in and night would fall shortly; the land was now past it's mourning phase and so was it's people. The owl had no reason to be there any longer, flapping it's wings and lifting off into the sky. It had seen what it needed to see and confirmed what it had already known. Now it had to wait for destiny to finish what had started in this World. Perhaps the Three Goddesses were really looking upon this land after all.

Beyond series and all original characters © Ameera Mae Laramie

Legend of Zelda games, characters, and places © Nintendo and their original creator


	17. Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen:

Another two weeks had passed since the casket had been buried. Already life seemed to be mending in Hyrule, people moving on with their daily lives as though nothing had happened. Skies had cleared up after the burial, the rains stopping and the overcast sky becoming blue once again. Perhaps that was a sign that the land knew stability would come soon and there was no reason to weep for those who were not lost. There were others in the land that could not stop the tears from flowing nor knew of how and which flows were already changed.

Having to watch someone disappear right in front of one's own eyes was horrible in its own right but if it was right in front of a young child, it was even more so. Zelda sat on her bed, a yellow pillow in her arms as she kept her tear-streaked face in it. She had positioned herself on the feathered mattress so that her back was against the wall towards the top of her bed, her legs pulled up close to her chest so that the pillow rested on her knees. It did well to hide the tears whenever a guard poked his head into the room, thinking that the princess-heir was only trying to take a nap instead of crying for her mother. She was the only one left that was still crying for a lost queen, the rest of the kingdom and beyond had dried their tears up long before.

The want for her mother to be back was great yet she knew there was no chance that she would ever see her again except by some force of the Goddesses. Why the queen had gonto into the depths of Kake Hylia and did not surface from the crystal water Zelda did not know; her mother had claimed before that she was an expert swimmer and could swim around the lake without much hindrance. That claim hadn't been as accurate as Kaya had boasted, or so the princess-heir had seen. All she knew was that her mother was not coming back from whatever plain of living she was on now and would not come back from that place no matter how much she wanted her to come back.

Since the day at the lakeside, Zelda began to have a festering distaste of the Hylia and she blamed her father for letting them go on the disastrous picnic. Although she was still too young to have a better grasp on the strong emotions that she felt, she still clung to the idea that had her father continued to deny them to leave then her mother would have still been alive and there would have been no need for tears. She _did_ know death was not escapable even for those of the Royal Family and that her mother had often suffered because of her role, but it was too sudden for her to have gone like that. The woman had been brave enough to hae survived this long just for the sake of a child but to lose the battle to death meant that her mother was weaker then she let her child believe.

A knock came at the wooden door on the other side of the door. Zelda's head went up quickly, her mouth opening slightly at the sound; no guard knocked at her door unless the princess-heir was changing clothing. Only two people remained that would knock at her door now: her father and Impa. Her father was supposedly elsewhere at the moment, having to entertain a guest from Hyrule's border alone now -- or so he said -- and Impa was somewhere else in the castle as far as Zelda knew. In her aching heart she hoped that it was Impa that was knocking instead of her father; she did not want to face strangers she would never see again.

"Come in," she muttered in a small voice as she put the pillow to the side and crossed her arms over her knees. As the door began to open she silently prayed that the person on the other side wasn't a cook or another servent; they, too, had a tendency to knock when they wanted to get the girl to eat or fit into _another_ dress.

Instead of a servent or her father, Impa glided in without so much as a readable expression on her face and closed the door behind her. Zelda turned her head away from the Sheikah, not really wanting to look at her attendent when she came into the room further. Although the princess-heir did not blame the woman for anything that happened at the Hylia, she knew something the child did not; Zelda could not wrap her mind around what was being kept secret from her and the rest of Hyrule. Impa was likely inside this room because of a missed lesson or an outburst that happened during meal-time; that couldn't be helped when tears couldn't be stopped from the loss of her mother.

"Zelda, you weren't at breakfast this morning. You are feeling more then well enough to cry and shout at your tutors during lessons but why are you not willing to eat?" Impa asked, crossing her arms over her chest. Zelda did not answer the question nor did she look towards the Sheikah, her eyes continuously staring at the pillow she had put down on her bed. There was an annoyed sigh followed by Impa walking to the bed and sitting down at the end of the bed. "While you may still feel the loss of your mother it is not wise to push your plate away, it'll make you sick. You can't keep yourself locked in your room, it's your duty as princess-heir to continue on with your lessons."

"I don't want to continue with my lessons," Zelda mumbled quietly. She was old enough to understand that the duties she had as a future queen would possibly include the same ones her mother had, ones that may just set her on the same path that she had chosen to take. It wasn't worth it; if she could give up the role of princess-heir and give it to someone else then she would do it without thinking what would happen.

"There's a reason why you need to have them, Zelda." Impa sighed again, rubbing the bridge of her nose. There was no need for her to explain how the lessons Zelda took would help her survive long into her being queen, even if it was to go down the same path Kaya had taken. "I know you don't want to talk about your mother or what happened at the lake but you can't suppress your emotions. It's not a healthy decision nor is it a good idea to bottle your emotions inside these walls."

"Why shouldn't I?" The child shot back with two shakes of her head and several tears. "You do it all the time so why should I be any different?"

"That may be so for _me_ but I have been trained to suppress my emotions when the time arises to do so. I can not be going all over the castle with my emotions on my sleeve." The Sheikah put her hands into her lap. "You are not Sheikah, child, nor are you being trained to hide them like I have been trained. There are times when hiding your emotions is the best way but not like this. All of Hyrule will see that you are still hurting from your mother's departure from this World but are also strong enough to continue on to follow in her footsteps."

"They are useless emotions," the child mumbled, resting her chin on her knees. "I don't want to show them."

Impa stared at Zelda for a moment, unsure as to whether she had come to this conclusion herself or had influence elsewhere. It was hard to determine who had planted the seed of doubt in her mind about showing the emotions a child like herself should be free to express; Impa, herself, did not want to put the blame on someone else if it was her fault to begin with. However she couldn't rule out the possibility that the ruler of the land could also have done so, seeing how fragile his daughter was since Kaya left. Or did the child see that to get through each day she had to hide her tears from watchful eyes?

"Do not listen to those that believe emotions are useless, including your father," she whispered, stroking the child's hair. "To him most everything is useless."

Zelda didn't make any attempts push away the Sheikah, instead she moved closer to her and placed her head onto her lap. Curling up into a small ball, she let Impa continuously stroke her hair; this had a calming and soothing effect. Her mother had done this whenever Zelda had gotten sick or suffered through one of her nightmares; Impa now had a full-fledged job of maintaining the mother figure to the princess-heir. One who would protect the girl as she grew up, a promise that she had made to Kaya and to herself long before going to the Hylia.

"Why did we go to the lake in the first place?" Zelda asked when Impa rested a hand onto the top of her head.

"It was to learn of the land, child. That had been the reason why we went there," she said as soothingly as she possibly could without straining her voice. It was hard to tell lies to someone this young -- even in a room such as the princess-heir's, there were still walls that could listen. "You will learn of the future your mother left behind and where her spirit rests now."

"You knew she was going to do that, didn't you?" Zelda sniffed up a sob. Impa paused, not knowing exactly how to answer that question. There had been no prior knowledge that Kaya would have gone into the Hylia and gone to another World like that, not as suddenly as she had thought it happened. There had been a voice deep at the back of her head that told her something was going to happen and she should have listened to that voice. It was over and done with now, there was no turning back on what had happened.

"I did not know." It would have been considered lying if she _had_ known. "It is just as hard for you as it is for me. Your mother is in safe hands now, wherever she is."

Or as safe as Impa assumed she was. She wanted to tell Zelda where Kaya was -- or at least _hinted_ more if she knew anything else -- but she couldn't. Not only was she too young to realize the importance of what and why this happened, but she would be asking too many questions and want to see her mother even more then she did now. The king would then know, by the eyes and ears he had around the castle, that the former queen was living somewhere and attempt to locate her with added desperation; the closest pendant would no longer be safe and there would be too many eyes watching to retrieve it safely. Armies would be sent after Kaya no matter where anyone thought she was, why he was obsessed with keeping under his control only the Goddesses knew.

Zelda would be in more danger then she realized if anyone else knew what exactly had transpired at the Hylia. Time would be disrupted, Destiny would be in chaos, and the secrets of the pendents would no longer be kept as hidden as they were. It was dangerous enough that _Kaya_ knew and used the pendent without a Sheikah present; oh how that would have reflected badly upon Impa if anyone else knew! There was no going back on it now that it was done with, Impa would have to keep a more watchful eye on how things progressed in the land. If she could.

"Do not worry for your mother. In whatever plain of living she is in she can take care of herself." Impa smiled warmly. "She wouldn't want you to worry about her."

She wanted to say something else to calm the nerves of the child but a knock came at teh door followed by the door opening enough so that a head came in from behind. The maid who put her head inside was frowning at something, a rather wild look about her that made Impa's skin crawl with worry. No servent of the Royal Family looked _that_ frantic without something being awry. Perhaps it was just the king wanting to speak with her again, asking another round of questions that couldn't be answered without the legendary unlimited Sheikah calm -- she couldn't dismiss the look in the maid's eyes as that.

"What's going on?" Impa asked quietly, setting the princess-heir into a sitting position on the bed before standing up herself. The maid looked behind her for a moment like she expected someone to be standing there.

"The king is finished talking with his _guest_ and that guest is looking for you," the maid answered in a hushed voice. "It would be best if you hurried now so you don't anger him more."

"Anger who more, the guest or the king?" Impa demanded, striding to the door in several easy steps. The maid looked positively frightened now as she pushed the door open all the way for her to glide through easily. It was unknown if the maid was more afraid of what the Sheikah would do or what the mysterious _guest_ could do to a simple cleaning woman.

"The guest," she said meekly, lowering her eyes. "I heard that he isn't the sort that likes to wait any more then he has to. Said he was told by the king that he wanted to talk to you about something important."

Impa paused on the other side of the door, turning half way around to stare at the middle aged woman who still kept the door open but didn't meet the gaze. Zelda was staring after her attendent, her own confusion masking any heartache she had. To Impa's knowledge there was no one that she knew outside of the Royal Family that she had anything of importance to discuss with, let alone anything the king knew about. A cold chill went down her spine, a dread feeling setting in her stomach; what did the king know without being told of anything?

"Who is this guest? Just so I know who I am supposedly talking importance with." There were so many guests of the king that came through that it was impossible to know each by face and by name.

"I didn't catch his name or the reason why he was here, just was told he was looking for you and that the king gave him the okay to do so. I didn't get a glimpse of him either." If the king had his guards as eyes and ears, Impa and Kaya had much of the serving staff for their own use. "All I know is that he is Gerudo and is waiting for you in the corridor by the main entrance."

Impa cursed serveral times under her breath, turning back around the way she was facing and nearly ran in the direction to the lower floors of the castle where the main gate was located. The maid looked out of the room after the Sheikah, her mouth opened slightly as she watched the Sheikah turn around the corner faster then she had ever seen anyone walk. What she was was in a hurry for a Gerudo thief she didn't know or the importance of this meeting between the two would be.

XXX

Waiting wasn't one of his strong traits and he had waited long enough, even after the proper mourning time for Hylians. His scouts had done a good deed by watching the Royal Family go to the graveyard to bury their queen and to wander around the graves for any extra information they could get. Doing so had nearly gotten themselves caught no less then four times by the grave digger, even more by the village folk had they not seen three Gerudo females enter the graveyard after the Royal Family was long since gone from that place. Why those in Kakariko thought that these woman could easily dig up and haul away a presumably _full_ casket without anyone taken notice was beyond him.

Even with what he knew from these scouts and from what he had been told before by Nabooru, Ganondorf still wanted to hear it from the Sheikah's lips herself. He had been issued a summons by the king several days before by courier, at which time Ganondorf's own spirits seemed to have improved with that notice. The rest of the Clan had done their best to avoid the wraith of their leader and done so with great care; they only came in contact with him when there was a need to and that had been few and far between. The king hadn't been so egear to have the Gerudo back in his castle but he was under the impression that what information Ganondorf could pry out of Impa, the more she would be willing to talk to the man -- all unspoken of course. Just by the tone and expression the Hylian king used was enough for Ganondorf to understand that the Sheikah had not been as truthful as she should have been to him; there was always something underlying with the Sheikah race, implied or not.

He paced rather fast in the corridor by the main gate to the castle, his eyes actively searching not only for the Sheikah but for any guards that came within five feet of him. There were two guards at the lowered draw bridge that were waiting for the Gerudo to leave, at least another two around the corner where Ganondorf had just been in just in case he decided to walk back to the throne room, and another three on the other end of the corridor. The king seemingly either didn't want to take any chances that Ganondorf would take the castle under siege by himself, wanted to hear the conversation between Sheikah and Gerudo, or both.

Smiling to himself, he had to silently applaud the Hylain for his ability to believe that one man could take control of the land by himself by merely strolling into the castle and taking over. While there were countless guards in the castle and other defenses he didn't know about, Ganondorf wasn't about to take the crown quite yet -- there was no need to do it without the Triforce and, while he possessed a rather decent amount of not only brute strength but a vast array of magical ability thanks not only to his surrogate mothers but to his supposed adoptive mother, he wasn't about to stupidly take siege of the castle alone. There would be other Gerudo also helping him as well.

If the king really wanted to hear what the woman and himself were talking about then he could listen on the conversation himself; the guards wouldn't hear a word muttered from either Sheikah nor Gerudo. Once the Sheikah was in his sight there would be a rather weak barrier separating spoken words from listening ears; the information given to Ganondorf would be for his own use and not the damnable king. If the man wanted to know things then he would have to find out himself, if the Sheikah wanted to give up the information herself.

"What do you want?" A voice demanded from behind him. Ganondorf spun around to find the Sheikah woman standing before him, arms crossed underneath her chest and a deep frown on her lips. She had come from the other side of the corridor and must have taken note of five of the seven guards that were stationed close by. She had gotten there at a good speed, too; only ten minutes had passed since a maid had been given the orders by a guard to go find this woman and given the complexity and size of the castle, she must have run the entire way or had taken more then one shortcut. Ganondorf smiled, his lips moving with the words used to put up the barrier to shield their conversation from those guard's ears; Impa must have known he was casting a ward against eavesdropping because her shoulders loosened slightly and the frown on her face lessened to a degree. "I suppose you want to keep this between ourselves."

"You assume correct. Oh the king only knows I want to talk to you about something important about a Sheikah artifact but that's the only thing I've told him." The look on her face suggested more then a bit of surprise but a hint of worry and concern. "Your king is a rather irritable fellow isn't he? Doesn't like it when someone talks vaguely to him."

"What do you want?" Impa demanded sourly. Her tone indicated she wanted to get this over with so that she could get on with her daily chores, not deal with a Gerudo who, for all intent and purposes could very well easily go to the king with the information disclosed in this conversation. Ganondorf had made no written pact with the king nearly a month before when he had first approached him about the need to talk to a person under the king's employ nor had he been told in the recent meeting that he had to sign anything stating information would be shared. Information _would_ be given but it wouldn't be the information needed.

"Where is the pendent?" Ganondorf demanded. If Impa had known what he was talking about off hand then she didn't outwardly appear that she knew what he was talking about.

"What pendent?" She asked innocently enough. "You mean the ones that the Royal Family has? If it is and this is what you wanted to meet me for then you've wasted your time, I don't know where the Royal Family keeps their jewels."

"My patience wears thin, Sheikah. You know _exactly_ what pendent I'm talking about!" No, he couldn't let his anger get a hold of him like that, not when he was face-to-face with one that could possibly give him the link to the story Nabooru had told him. At that moment Impa's expression changed and her whole body tensed; by now she realized she couldn't play dumb with one that seemingly knew of something she did.

"I don't know how you know of the pendent but I assure you I don't know where it is now." That much was the truth, she _didn't _know where it was; which World Kaya had gone with the pendent she didn't know. How the Gerudo found out about them was only her guess and made her even more aware that Sheikah information could be obtained by _anyone._ "I'd like to know how you intend on using any information you'd get from me when I know just as little as you do."

"I have my ways of getting information through my Clan." Ganondorf grinned rather forcibly. "As for uses of your information -- which I know you have more of -- your king does not need to know _everything_. You would agree to that wouldn't you? Even as someone who works directly for the Royal Family should know that they don't know half the things you know."

That didn't put her at any more ease then it did already but it gave her something to think about; even if she did say something about what happened to the queen, she didn't have to say everything. Things could be easily twisted to her advantage, the worry and dread that she felt lifting almost immediately. While Impa knew that Ganondorf wouldn't believe the same lies she told the king, she could very well spin a web of half truths without telling the entire thing, it would keep not only Kaya and Zelda safe but the only other pendent she had access to.

"I'm telling you the truth in that I don't know where it is now, it went with someone else. Where she went with it I don't know and presently there isn't any way you or anyone else can get to her." That would be enough to tide over Ganondorf for the moment despite his heated glare. Ganondorf was more then seething inside, his hands clenching several times to keep not only himself under control but the ward as well. It wouldn't do him any good to loose his control especially in the place where he was now.

"You are lying to me," he growled at her as he took several steps towards her. Impa tilted her head to him, her eyes going wide to give him a mockingly innocent look.

"Sheikah do not lie to anyone, at least to my knowledge," she said simply. "They just have their secrets."

"The queen is dead, is that rumor true?" If he couldn't get the information from her by asking direct questions then he would get it from her by another means.

"I was there, I saw what happened to her with my own eyes." That same calm face he had seen on his first visit to the castle returned in strength. "I know she is still alive by some other force beyond the control of anyone in this land or beyond it but I don't know how or why. Where she is I don't know so I can not tell you therefore I can not tell you where the pendent went off to."

That was as good as he was going to get to an admission that the queen of the land was still within an invisible grasp but wasn't within the kings. It also confirmed that the pendent was real enough as it were and _had_ been recently used by the queen herself; how it worked Ganondorf didn't know and wouldn't press this Sheikah for the answer to it. All he wanted right now was for her or someone else to fetch it for him so that he wouldn't have to resort to force in getting it for himself. Whatever information he had just gotten and whatever else he was going to get would not, in fact, leave this ward nor conversation; like the Sheikah, Gerudo could use half-truths to conceal what they wanted to.

"I want that pendent even if you have to get it yourself and _now_." He put the emphasis on 'now' more then anything considering he was more then done trying to play nice to anyone in this castle.

"I told you, if I don't know where it is I can't get it." Impa's own tone was growing impatient with having to repeat herself more then once. "I have no more pendents to give out nor can I suddenly recall the one Kaya has, wherever it is. I'm sorry that you made this trip for nothing."

The instant that the control of the ward was lost was the moment that the last few words were spoken. Ganondorf had enough of not getting what he wanted from the Sheikah and the guards that were patrolling the corridor now were coming towards the pair as though they knew they couldn't hear what had been said between them. All five of them had both of their hands on their spears and the two at the gate entrance had come inside to see what was going on inside the castle. If he couldn't get the information from Impa today without arousing any more suspicion within the castle then he would have to find another way, a better means of extracting the knowledge he wanted. So far all he knew was that the pendent had been used and was currently out of his reach, he'd get it some how even if he had to exterminate the entire Sheikah race to do so.

"Listen you damnable Sheikah. Even if it takes the rest of my life I _will_ get what I want to know from you _and_ the power your knowledge brings. That much I can promise you," Ganondorf breathed, turning his head to the guards that were coming up behind Impa then to the ones that were coming from behind him. These guards stopped once they saw the wild look in his eyes, holding onto their spears tightly as the Gerudo walked past the Sheikah. Pushing his way past the three guards he moved towards the entrance to the castle, vowing to return with more then himself to get what he wanted.

"So shall it be then," Impa muttered to herself with a light shrug. What had been said between themselves warranted no more worry about it then it had the day she had shown Kaya the pendent. Even if Ganondorf somehow found out that two more pendents existed within Hyrule there was nothing he could do about it; the only one within grasp was more then well protected and the last remaining one was lost to knowledge.

With the curious looks from the guards going unrewarded, Impa turned and swept past the three behind her just as Ganondorf had done mere seconds before. She had a child to attend to and it was more important then thinking about a Gerudo that would not get any information from her.

Beyond series and all original characters © Ameera Mae Laramie

Legend of Zelda games, characters, and places © Nintendo and their original creator


	18. Epilogue

Epilogue:

A long month had passed since she had entered and remained in the Human World. So many things had to be done to ensure she would bt hassle-free in this strange place, so many forms, papers, and other such things to fill out, so many sleepless nights she had spent in bed. She had no idea that one person needed so many proofs that one was, in fact, _alive_ and able to live and work in a single country alone; there no birth records or long numbers attaches to her for just living in this World. In her own World one needed very little to prove ones existence and ability to work, here it was like walking into several nightmares at once.

If she did not have Calista and Kurt in helping to prove that she wasn't a wandering fool or worse -- and to keep her from going insane -- Kaya would have most likely been sitting in a cell somewhere, waiting for the mess of claims to sort itself out. With their help -- and Kurt's knowledge of how the legal system worked -- most of Kaya's problems concerning her sudden appearance and no recordings of her existence in the Human World were already sorted out. There were still many hurdles for her to jump over but after the initial strain, everything was starting to feel less stressful and more complete. Once everything was settled and there would be no more questioning of the same things, her old life as queen would all but forgotten.

One of the first worries tackled on the same day she arrived in this World was where she would stay until she was able to go out on her own to live. Calista had hosted Kaya for the first week while Kaya became used to her new surroundings and new life beyond the castle walls. Calista's home was beautiful, reminats of her own life from Hyrule placed along walls, tables, and any place that could hold it while also embracing the Human World. Kaya had noticed this from the second that she had stepped into the house and smiled; there was a certain comfort in seeing odd jars on the mantle, odd coins and outdated rupees framed in shadowboxes, and a wooden shield that was made out of the bark of the Great Deku Tree that hung on a far wall. No one else in this World would suddenly be able to place these objects into a World that they did not believe existed outside their own imagination; Kaya knew these things. She would not feel totally comfortable staying with Calista much longer then she did considering she had just left that life behind and did not wish to see reminders of it so soon. In time she would not be so uncomfortable seeing the objects from Hyrule.

The first three days had been spent between crying into a pillow for her left behind daughter and trying to cope with the reality of the situation. While she regretted not planning out what she could have and should have done and having to leave Zelda behind, she could not find the strength to feel angry at the actions she had taken nor at herself for what she had done at the lakeside. Things would have become worse if she had stayed much longer; that was her line of reasoning for herself. She missed Zelda deeply and wished that she could have taken her along to this new World; Kaya would not have done this if she did not believe Zelda would be safe under watchful, trusting eyes. As long as the princess-heir was protected by the Sheikah Kaya knew that the child would be fine.

For the rest of the week Kaya had given Calista information about Hyrule that she did not know of and changes that occurred since the Sheikah had left the land. This conversation lasted several hours and in return for the updates about her home land Calista told of many things about the Human World that Kaya would need to know early on in her stay. So few things were left out and so much to learn about the two Worlds. It would be a wondrous thing indeed to not embarrass herself in her first outing into the city -- outside dates to see judges and other legal offices she needed to go to, driven to and from these places by Kurt or Calista. She looked towards the day where she could walk along shop and market squares without an nor guard surrounding her at all times. Neither Kurt nor Calista could being to understand how liberating that feeling alone would be like.

During the last three weeks Kaya had remained at Kurt's house -- despite the odd fact it was strange for her to stay there -- Kaya had found the idea uncomfortable at first since she hardly knew the man and she didn't know how it would affect her cases. Even when Calista told her Kurt had somehow became some sort of 'guardian' for the former queen -- and the Sheikah used that term loosely -- it did not ease her mind much. After the first week and a half the notion she was staying in his house became less uncomfortable and more of every day life. Even Kurt appeared more relaxed once both became used to being around each other; he seemed almost _glad_ to have her there, which seemed like a total turn around from when they had first met.

And this was where Kaya would make her home for the time being, sitting on a reclining chair that overlooked the front yard of the home. Rain splattered down the glass panes from the dark, overcast morning sky; she found watching the rain brought her some comfort. Sitting on the ground beside the chair one of her books she had brought with her laid ope, a pen resting inside of it. Words were hand written on half of one of the pages, detailing her life as she remembered it when she had lived in Hyrule. There would be more entries about her time spent in the Human World, what few years she had here. There were still no more intentions of returning back to her own home unless there was an urgent need; a month spent away from the Human World seemed too risky. Returning to Hyrule was even more dangerous, not only for her but for anyone she cared about.

"Kaya?" A voice broke into her silent memories. Kaya turned her head from the rain to the direction the voice came from. Standing at the bottom of the stairs that lead up to the second floor was Kurt, his eyes quietly watching her as he buttoned up his work shirt.

"Yes?" She asked with a slight smile. She couldn't help but watch him button up his shirt but kept her eyes on his face as best as she could.

"I"m about to go to the station, do you want to come?" He offered. "I'll only be about six hours to finish some paperwork."

"No, not today." She stretched her arms out. "It's too wet."

Kurt laughed lightly to himself. "If you say so. Just don't wander out of the house by yourself, there's still a lot of things you need to learn."

Kaya's smile never wavered from her lips even as Kurt finished buttoning his shirt and headed up the stairs. It wasn't a forced smile but one that she hadn't used since Zelda had been born. It couldn't be helped and it would take a few years before she realized what it meant. This would be the beginning of the best ten years she would ever know...


End file.
